Becky Downie

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Rebecca Downie (born January 24, 1992^[1]) is a British gymnast.^[2]

Downie began training in gymnastics at age 7.

She has won many junior titles.^{[citation needed]} At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, she was a member of the English team^[2] that won a silver medal.^[3] Downie herself won a bronze medal for her beam routine.^[2] She placed 5th on the bars and 8th all-around.^{[citation needed]}

In July 2006, she won the all-around of the Junior British Championships, plus gold medals on floor and vault and a bronze on bars.^{[citation needed]} As of July 2006, she had won 4 national championships in four straight years at age 14.^[4]

Downie turned senior in 2007 and enjoyed a successful year. She was a member of the team who competed at the World Championships in Stuttgart and achieved the best ever result for a British team, finishing sixth in prelims and seventh in the team final. This result easily qualified them to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Becky was first reserve for both the vault and bars finals, but did not get to compete in either.

She has continued to compete in 2008. At the European Championships in April, she was once again a member of the British team, this time finishing sixth. Becky qualified to both vault and bars finals, but was suffering from the flu on the day they were held. She crashed one of her vaults, finishing 8th. This was followed with a gutsy but slightly underpar performance on bars, having fallen several times in warmups. A small mistake led her to again finish 8th. However, despite her disappointing result she and Beth Tweddle became the first British women to compete in two individual event finals in the same European championship.