Search

06 Sept 2025

On this day in 2017: Ellie Downie makes British gymnastics history

On this day in 2017: Ellie Downie makes British gymnastics history

Ellie Downie became the first British gymnast to be crowned a European all-around champion on this day in 2017.

The then 17-year-old trailed Hungary’s Zsofia Kovacs throughout the competition but produced a stunning final floor routine to claim victory by just 0.333 of a point in Romania.

Downie said: “It was a fight for me out there because I was always second, but I knew when I saw her floor score come in that I had done better than that in qualification.

“Obviously I was aware of where I was standing throughout but I tried to ignore her scores and just focus on myself.

“It was just crazy when I discovered I’d won and I don’t think it will sink in for a while.

“I’ve definitely surprised myself in the last couple of weeks. I had to have two weeks off after the British Championships because I had to rest my foot, so to come out here and win gold is amazing really.”

Downie qualified for all five finals at the meet and went on to add two silver medals and a bronze to her haul.

She won 12 international medals in total during her senior career, including two world championship bronzes.

Earlier this year, Downie announced her retirement from gymnastics aged 23 to “prioritise her mental health and happiness”.

To continue reading this article,
please subscribe and support local journalism!


Subscribing will allow you access to all of our premium content and archived articles.

Subscribe

To continue reading this article for FREE,
please kindly register and/or log in.


Registration is absolutely 100% FREE and will help us personalise your experience on our sites. You can also sign up to our carefully curated newsletter(s) to keep up to date with your latest local news!

Register / Login

Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.

Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.