When Ellie Downie nailed her vault landing to make history as the first British woman to win an all‑around medal at a major gymnastics championships, in Montpellier eight days ago, the tears flowed for the 15-year-old. In the stands, watching her younger sister compete in her first European championships final, was 23-year-old Becky Downie, similarly overcome with emotion.
“You always feel nervous for a team-mate,” says Ellie, “but when it’s a family member it’s a different kind of emotion, you feel it more. You feel the highs more and you feel the lows more. While she was doing her routines I just held my breath.”
Despite a minor foot injury going into the competition, Ellie excelled in her first senior international championships, posting a personal best in qualifying and winning the bronze medal. “It was really emotional because I really wasn’t expecting it,” she says. “I was just hoping for top six so to get a bronze, I was absolutely chuffed with that.”
Her elder sister Becky won two silver medals, on bars and beam, but experienced a very different emotion after her achievements. “I was more relieved because my preparation for the Europeans was a bit of a rough ride. I was trying to put in a new skill in my bars routine ahead of the worlds and by February it still really wasn’t working.”
Becky and her coach decided they had no option but to change the routine. “It is not something you’d normally do ahead of a major championships but we didn’t have any other option. It can take months to learn a new routine, and we had just eight weeks to do it. I had a lot of falling off, missing catches.”
Out came the shap½ and in went a move they had been saving for Rio 2016 – the shang – otherwise known as a clear katchev in a pike position. “It was in the back of my mind that it could have been hit or miss. But when I did it in qualification it gave me the confidence that I could do it again.” That she did, adding two silver medals to the European bars title she won last year.
Growing up in Nottingham, in a family of five siblings, gymnastics dominated the household as first Becky and then Ellie caught the bug. The sisters are very close – they still live together in the family home – and laugh when asked if they argue. “For how much time we have to spend together we get on surprisingly well,” says Becky. “But Ellie takes a lot of my clothes, so we’ve now got to the point where I say she has free range of my room so long as she puts it all back. The usual sisterly stuff.”
When Becky experienced her darkest hour, missing out on team selection for London 2012 after a season blighted by injury, Ellie was there to support her. “I remember being really, really down,” says Becky who, after winning a bronze medal in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games at 14, went eight years without an international medal before matching Beth Tweddle’s historic achievement in 2014 by winning European gold. “I didn’t want to be at Lilleshall with the rest of the team as a reserve but I had to be there in case anyone dropped out. It wasn’t fun seeing everyone train for the Olympics.”
“I remember that time,” says Ellie, quietly, “she was very down. It was such a huge disappointment for her. We tried to do the best we could to keep her happy but it was hard.”
As Becky battled with a decision over whether to quit her sport, her sister had a plan to cheer her up in the form of a tiny fluffy ginger kitten named Rio “to encourage her to carry on gymnastics”, says Ellie.
Becky says: “I came home and my mum said: ‘Shut your eyes, we’ve got you a surprise’, and I was like: ‘I’m just not in the mood for anything.’ And then she sat me down and dropped this little thing in my arms. He was really cute and he’s still with us today. Just before the Europeans my mum sent me a picture of him to say good luck.”
Ellie says Becky’s ability to overcome obstacles is what inspires her about her big sister, while Becky cites Ellie’s cool-headed talent for “switching into competition mode” as her most enviable skill. “That’s something I wish I’d learned when I was a bit younger. Her ability to go out there and take no prisoners. She’s a bubbly person as well, she’s more cheery than me – she doesn’t let things get to her as much.”
Until now the sisters have always specialised in opposite apparatus but with Ellie making the bars final in Montpellier – Becky’s specialist piece – might they be going up against each other more often in future? “Erm, it would be a bit strange,” says Ellie, laughing. “That’s always been Becky’s best piece, so hopefully I’ll just stay on vault.” Becky nods.
“With Ellie doing four pieces and Rio just next year it would take a hell of a lot of work for Ellie to get her start value on bars up high enough to be ready by then, but after Rio I see no reason why she couldn’t be a top, top bars worker.”
The world championships are in Glasgow at the end of October and there is a lot at stake for Becky before the next Olympic Games. “For me the two medals I have missing are Olympics and worlds,” she says, pointedly. “The last two years I’ve made world bars finals but didn’t medal.”
The sisters are determined to secure team qualification for Rio 2016 and avoid any further qualifying competitions. The Double Downies, as they are known in gymnastics circles, are already being tipped as poster girls for the GB team in Rio: a strong performance in Glasgow could just propel them into the big time.