![]() ![]() "I was coming in as a reigning world medallist, with the potential to do well in Tokyo if they would help me along the way," she said. "Ultimately I knew I couldn't carry on, because I didn't think I would ever get picked again."ĭownie lost her brother Josh in 2021 after he suffered a heart attack during cricket training, and while she says she "lost direction" following his death, she felt it was used as a "narrative" to justify her non-selection for the Tokyo Games. "I got asked to be a reserve before trials, but then to not get picked it put me in a very low state. "I went home without anyone speaking to me before I left, - that was absolutely heart-breaking."ĭownie, an Olympian at Rio in 2016, said she had been considering retirement since October, shortly before the World Championships. But the whole scenario around it, no-one came up to me, I sat on the bench crying, the coaches ignored me. "When I got to the last trial, I decided to pull out. ![]() But I really wanted to make a positive change. "Ultimately it did really hinder us a lot, we both didn't make the Tokyo Games. "At the time I was pretty confident to ," she said. Last year, the Whyte Review found systemic abuse in the sport in Britain, but Downie says speaking out hindered her further selection. In 2020, Downie and her sister Becky spoke out about abusive behaviour in British Gymnastics, saying it was "ingrained" and "completely normalised". "I want to stay within realms of it, but it was how people were treating me." "It wasn't the sport itself, I still very much love gymnastics," Downie told BBC Sport's Laura Scott. Downie won 12 medals during her senior career, including a historic all-round European Championship gold in 2017.
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