Ellie Downie

Ellie Downie
— Gymnast ♀ —
Downie at the 2015 European Championships in Montpellier, France
Personal information
Full name	Elissa Downie
Country represented	Great Britain
Born	(1999-07-20) 20 July 1999 Nottingham, United Kingdom
Hometown	Nottingham, United Kingdom
Height	157 cm (5 ft 2 in)
Weight	53 kg (117 lb)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior international elite
Club	Notts Gymnastics Club
Head coach(es)	Claire Starkey, Ian Kime
Music	2014: "Señorita" by Bond 2015: "Why Don't You by Gramophonedzie 2016: "Skeletons" by Drehz
Medal record Representing  Great Britain World Championships 2015 Glasgow Team European Championships 2016 Bern Team 2016 Bern Vault 2016 Bern Floor exercise 2015 Montpellier All-around Youth Olympic Games 2014 Nanjing Vault 2014 Nanjing All-around 2014 Nanjing Balance beam 2014 Nanjing Floor exercise

Elissa "Ellie" Downie (born 20 July 1999 in Nottingham)^[1] is a British artistic gymnast and sister of Olympian Becky Downie. She represented Great Britain at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics.^[2] A prodigious junior, Downie, at the age of 15, became the first female gymnast ever to win an individual all-around medal for Great Britain at the European Championships, with a bronze at the 2015 Championships in Montpelier, France^[3] Later in the same year, Downie was part of the Great Britain women's team that won her country's first ever global team medal, a bronze, at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

Junior career

2014

Downie competed at the European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She won a gold on vault, a team silver and a bronze in the all-around competition.

Youth Olympics

Ellie was selected to compete at the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China through her performances at the European Championships. At the Summer Youth Olympics, she earned four medals: silver on vault behind Wang Yan and bronze in the all-around, balance beam and floor exercise.

Senior career

2015

Downie competed at the 2015 British Championships as a senior. She won silver on vault and uneven bars and bronze in the all-around competition. She was named as one of the gymnasts to represent Great Britain at the 2015 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships along with her sister Becky Downie. She did well in qualifications qualifying for the Individual All-Around, Vault and Uneven Bars finals.^[9]

On Friday 17 April she competed in the Women's Individual All-Around final, where she came 3rd behind Giulia Steingruber and Maria Kharenkova with a score of 56.623, winning a historic bronze medal for the British team. This would be the first ever individual all-around medal for a British female gymnast at the European Championships. Her older sister and teammate, Becky was in the stands cheering her on.^[3]

Downie was named as Sky Sports's Sportswoman of the Month for April 2015.^[10]

On 20 December 2015 she was crowned BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.^[11]

2016

In May 2016, Downie participated at the 2016 FIG World Cup event in Osijek, Croatia – she won all four individual event titles at the competition;^[12] the first time this has happened since Ludmilla Tourischeva did the feat in 1975.^[13]

Later, in June; at the 2016 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Bern, Switzerland,^[14][15] Downie amassed three silver European medals in the team, vault and floor exercise competitions.^[16][17]

In July, she was named to Great Britain's women's gymnastics team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, along with Becky Downie, Claudia Fragapane, Ruby Harrold, and Amy Tinkler. The team finished in fifth place, and Downie finished thirteenth in the all around.

Personal life

Ellie is the sister of 2008 Olympian, Becky Downie.^[18] Downie attended the Rushcliffe School in Nottingham, until leaving in the summer of 2015.^[19][20]

Competitive history

References