Ellie Downie

Downie made her senior debut at the 2015 British Championships. She won silver on vault and uneven bars and bronze in the all-around competition, and was named to the British team for the 2015 European Championships along with her sister, Becky Downie.

She performed well in qualifications at the European Championships, qualifying for the individual all-around, vault and uneven bars finals.[6] On 17 April, she competed in the all-around final and placed third, behind Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland and Maria Kharenkova of Russia, with a score of 56.623, winning the first ever individual all-around medal for a British female gymnast at the European Championships.[3]

Downie was the Sky Sports Sportswoman of the Month for April 2015.[7] On 20 December, she was named the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.[8][9]

In May 2016, Downie won all four individual event titles at the FIG World Cup event in Osijek, Croatia,[10] becoming the first gymnast to accomplish this feat at a World Cup competition since Ludmilla Tourischeva in 1975.[11] The following month, at the 2016 European Championships in Bern, Switzerland, she won silver medals with the team and on vault and floor exercise.[12][13]

In July, she was named to the British team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, along with Becky Downie, Claudia Fragapane, Ruby Harrold and Amy Tinkler.[14]

In qualifications at the Olympics, Downie landed on her head during a tumbling pass on floor and was unable to finish her routine.[15][16] However, she returned in the next rotation, performing two vaults, and qualified to the all-around final in 20th place.[17] She improved on that performance in the final, finishing 13th,[18] and the British women finished fifth in the team competition.[19]

In April Downie represented Great Britain at the European Championships in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where she made history by qualifying for all five individual finals.[20] The next day, she became the first British gymnast to win the all-around title at a major international competition, beating Hungary's Zsófia Kovács and France's Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos.[4] She also won silver medals on vault and floor exercise, and won the bronze medal on the uneven bars.[21] At the beginning of August she underwent surgery on her ankle due to an injury she had dealt with at both the British Championships and European Championships that year. Due to the surgery Downie was unable to compete at the 2017 World Championships.

While Downie had intended to compete at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, her ankle was still causing her issues despite the surgery she had undergone previously and she did not compete for a majority of the year.[22]

On 27 September Downie was named to the team to compete at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar alongside Becky Downie, Alice Kinsella, Georgia-Mae Fenton, and Kelly Simm.[23] The team finished ninth in qualifications and did not advance to the team final. Individually Downie qualified to the all-around final where she finished 11th.[24]

Downie was selected to compete at the 2019 European Championships alongside Amelie Morgan, Alice Kinsella, and Kelly Simm.[25] She competed at the British Championships where she placed first in the all-around, on vault, and on floor exercise.[26] She later competed at the Birmingham World Cup where she placed seventh after falling off the balance beam and uneven bars.[27] At the European Championships Downie qualified to the all-around final in fourth place and to the vault final in first.[28] In the all-around final Downie finished second behind Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos of France.[29] She won bronze in the vault final behind 2015 vault champion Maria Paseka and 2017 vault champion Coline Devillard.[30]

In September Downie was named to the team to compete at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart alongside Alice Kinsella, Becky Downie, Taeja James, and Georgia-Mae Fenton.[31] During qualifications Downie helped Great Britain place seventh, earning a spot in the team final and qualifying a team for Great Britain to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Individually Downie qualified for the vault final.[32] During the team final she contributed scores on vault and uneven bars towards Great Britain's sixth place finish.[33] In the vault final Downie performed a Double-Twisting Yurchenko and a Cheng, earning an average score of 14.816 and winning the bronze medal behind Americans Simone Biles and Jade Carey. This was Downie's first individual World Championships medal. Later that day Downie's sister Becky won her first individual World Championships medal, a silver medal on the uneven bars.[34]

In early February it was announced that Downie was selected to represent Great Britain at the Birmingham World Cup taking place in late March.[35] However the Birmingham World Cup was later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.[36]

In May, British Gymnastics announced that Downie would be taking some time away from gymnastics to be with her family following the sudden death of her 24-year-old brother Joshua[37] on the eve of the final Olympic trial,[38] thus ending her Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid.