Becky Downie

Infobox Gymnast
gymnastname= Becky Downie

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fullname=Rebecca Lauren Downie
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country=GBR
ENG
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birthdate= birth date and age|1992|01|24
birthplace=Nottingham
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height= convert|156|cm|ftin
discipline=WAG
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club=Notts
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headcoach=Claire Starkey
assistcoach=Ian Kime
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Rebecca Lauren (Becky) Downie (born January 24, 1992 [cite web|url=http://www.british-gym.com/gymnasts.htm|title=The British Gymnastics Net|accessdate=2008-06-03] ) is a British gymnast.cite web | url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2006/03/22/sogymn22.xml | title=Commonwealth Games: Downie stands firm and lands bronze | accessdate=2007-05-30 | author=Claire Middleton | last=Middleton | first=Claire | date=2006-03-22 | year=2006 | month=3 |publisher=Telegraph.co.uk ]

Downie began training in gymnastics at the age of 7.

She has won many junior titles.Fact|date=May 2007 At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, she was a member of the English team that won a silver medal.cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4820000/newsid_4828500/4828550.stm | title=Games 2006: Gold rush for England | accessdate=2007-05-30 | publisher=CBBC | language=English ] Downie herself won a bronze medal for her beam routine. She was placed 5th on the bars and 8th all-around.Fact|date=May 2007

In July 2006, she won the all-around of the Junior British Championships, plus gold medals on the floor and vault and a bronze on bars.Fact|date=May 2007 As of July 2006, she had won 4 national championships in four straight years at age 14. ["Nottingham Evening Post": "Becky champ for the 4th time." July 14 2006]

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 preliminaries 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 on 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.

2008 Olympics

In June 2008 Becky Downie became British Senior Champion and was also selected to compete for Great Britain in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She finished 12th in the individual all-around competition. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/gymnastics/7562466.stm|title=Liukin secures gold in all-around |date=2008-08-15|accessdate=2008-08-16|publisher=BBC]

References

External links

*fig|id=8474|name=Rebecca Downie