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Sisters Ellie and Becky Downie among team visiting host city as they prepare to build on nation’s success at London 2012 Olympic Games and 2015 world championships
Ellie, the younger of the Downie sisters, gets a feel for the apparatus at the Rio Olympic Arena (Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)
Russia, Romania, the USA and China may be the traditional powerhouses in artistic gymnastics, but there are some new kids on the block. Great Britain won their first ever world championship team medals last year, when their women took bronze before their men grabbed silver in Glasgow, and they could pose a serious threat to the established order at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
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The Brits were in Rio last week (24-31 January) as their Olympic preparations enter the final straight. A party of eight female gymnasts were accompanied by 10 technical staff as they trained at the Rio Olympic Arena, which will host the Olympic competitions in six months’ time. Rio2016.com caught up with them and asked what is the secret behind their recent success. They won an unprecedented four medals at the London 2012 Olympic Games, but the sea-change happened before this.
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Head national coach Amanda Reddin said much of the credit lay with a Romanian – Adrian Stan, who moved to Britain and took charge of the women’s national programme in 1992. “British gymnastics has progressed a lot over the last decade,” Reddin said.
Amanada Reddin
“I became national coach in 2012 (when Stan stepped up to high-performance coach development manager) and all the experience that he gave to us has now taken form and we all work together as a team.”
Reddin did however say that London had played a significant role in maintaining the positive momentum, and predicated that Brazil could feel a similar effect after the Rio 2016 Games. “London definitely gave us a boost,” she said. “We had a fabulous time and the girls and boys did incredibly well, winning medals which we’ve never done before.
“The current batch were in national squads during London and they saw what happened and thought ‘if they can do it, we can do it’. I am sure the same thing could happen in Brazil. Already you can see the venues taking shape and you just need the city to build on the Olympic spirit and everybody watching will want to get involved.”
The British team includes sisters Ellie and Becky Downie, from Nottingham, who despite having an eight-year difference between them are close on and off the mats. “Generally we get on really well,” said Becky, the elder sister at 24. “Of course there are days when we annoy each other, Ellie would definitely say that! We have our separate friendship groups, so we can separate when we need to, but most of the time we do enjoy being together.”
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Becky revealed that the duo were working on new skills that could form part of their Rio performances, while 16-year-old Ellie said it was also important to get to know the host city and venue. “One of the main reasons we’ve come is to feel what it’s like here, and we know that during the Olympics it should be cooler,” said Becky, as temperatures entered the late 30s. “It’s been great for us to see what it’s all about, it’s really inspired the whole team and helped bring us together that little bit more.”
The Rio Olympic Arena also doubles up as the Brazilian national team’s training base and the Brits were made to feel very welcome by their hosts, who invited them to a barbecue at the weekend.
Daniele Hypólito, Brazilian gymnast
