Becky and Ellie Downie say abuse in GB gymnastics 'completely normalised'
The world championship medallists Becky and Ellie Downie have joined the group of gymnasts speaking out about shocking abuse in the British team in a devastating statement which said “cruel” behaviour was “so ingrained in our daily lives that it became completely normalised”.
The sisters, who are regarded as Team GB’s best female gymnastics medal hopes at next year’s Tokyo Olympics, said they had faced “an environment of fear and mental abuse”, with constant questioning of their weight and attitude, as well as a level of over-training so severe their bodies repeatedly broke down.
Ellie Downie, who in 2017 became the first British gymnast to win a major all-around title at the European championships, revealed she would not eat or drink the night before weigh-in day and was once told by a coach that she “hoped the painkillers I was holding for an injury were diet pills”.
She added: “The never-ending focus about my weight will leave scars which will never be healed, I suspect.”
Reflecting on their early experiences in the sport, both sisters said: “We certainly didn’t realise how wrong it was at the time. It’s taken years and years to understand and come to terms with it.
“While exact experiences obviously vary ... for too long, the health and wellbeing of young girls has been of secondary importance to a dated, cruel, and – we’d argue – often ineffective culture within women’s gymnastics training.”
Becky Downie, who has won 14 major medals for Team GB and England during a glittering career, described how she had been “trained to the point of physical breakdown” on many occasions, before admitting: “Only in recent years I’ve understood properly the mental impact that’s had upon me.”
She added: “As recently as 2018, and given I was by this point a very senior athlete, I attempted to speak up at a national camp about what I considered was an unsafe approach to my personal training. I was shot down, called ‘mentally weak’, and told the injury pain levels I was experiencing were in my head.
“Just 12 days later, at the European championships, my ankle broke down yet again; a direct consequence of the unsafe training I attempted to bring up less than a fortnight earlier.”
Meanwhile her younger sister Ellie said she had constantly been made to feel “ashamed” about her weight. “From 14 years old I’ve been told to diet consistently,” she said. “At one time at this age, again after being told I was too heavy, I was told by a nutritionist to provide food diaries of everything that entered my mouth and send daily pictures of me in my underwear to ensure I wasn’t lying.
“There are countless examples of this behaviour I can reference, but I vividly recall being told as a young teenager at a national camp to lose 6kg in two weeks or ‘there’d be consequences’.”
The Downie sisters said they had decided to speak out following the lead of other gymnasts earlier this week including the British Olympians Francesca Fox, who was constantly told she was “fat” and “looked like a hippo” and Lisa Mason, who said she had been repeatedly made to train until her hands ripped and bled and called for the chief executive of GB Gymnastics, Jane Allen, to step down. A third leading gymnast has claimed she was locked in a cupboard by her coach as a 10-year-old.
The Downies concluded their statement by saying that the culture in British Gymnastics had improved in recent years after they had spoken out in private, and that since 2018 they were no longer routinely weighed.
British Gymnastics, which has launched an independent inquiry into the abuse scandal, was given advance notice of the statement but said it had no comment at this stage.