![]() Becky Downie, a two-time Olympian, spoke to their coaches, and the weigh-ins and remarks stopped. When persistent ankle problems were blamed on her weight - ”They would say I was getting injured because I was too heavy” – she told her sister Becky that she didn’t know if she wanted to continue competing. Her detractors “kind of made me overeat in a way,” she added. “You know how someone tells you to do something, you’re like ‘Absolutely no, I’m not doing it?’” Downie says. Her mother nixed the idea as “inappropriate,” and when a meeting was set up with the nutritionist, the woman protested that she had only been trying to help.īy 2018, Downie was fed up with the relentless scrutiny of her body, which she resisted and resented. Big meets coming one on top of the another left little time for extended celebrations or to sit and reflect on her accomplishments.Īt a training camp in Spain when she was 16, a nutritionist suggested she monitor her fitness by taking photos of herself in her underwear. Pressure to remain thin and comments about her body type intensified during her teenage years as she evolved into a top international talent. At eight or nine, the same year she won her first national title, Downie recalls eating Chinese takeout on a Friday night and begging her mom not to record the meal in the food diary she had been asked to keep. The accomplishments were enormous, but gymnastics was never a bed of roses for Downie, who says coaches fretted over her weight even when she was a child. ![]() In 2019, she earned another World bronze, this time on vault. ![]() Her performances helped the British women win their first World team medal - a bronze - in 2015, and she was part of the squad that finished fifth at the Rio Olympics.Ī year later, Downie became the first British woman to capture the European All-Around title. Alex George, a well-known Welsh physician and TV personality.Īs the winner of four medals at the Youth Olympic Games in 2014, Downie was one of the first breakout British stars of the post-Beth Tweddle era. 2017 European All-Around champion Ellie Downie of Great Britain has retired, she announced Monday on a podcast with Dr. ![]()
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