PARIS (Reuters) – Gymnast Becky Downie narrowly missed a team medal for Britain at the Paris Games on Tuesday but said her late brother would have been proud of what she had achieved at her third Olympics appearance.
At twice the age of some of her competitors in Paris, the 32-year-old Nottingham native dominated on the asymmetric bars – her best event – with the day’s highest score of 14.933.
It was an especially emotional day for Downie, whose late brother would have been celebrating his 28th birthday on Tuesday.
Josh Downie’s sudden death, from cardiac arrest while playing cricket, occurred in 2021 just as Becky was attempting to qualify for the pandemic-postponed Tokyo 2020 Games.
“It is my brother’s birthday, so I’m letting it sink in,” she told reporters.
“It was something that I knew coming in, I’ve got a great team around me trying to help and support in that sense. I couldn’t have done any more and I know he would have been super proud.”
Downie made her first Olympic appearance in 2008, was left out of London 2012 and then returned for Rio 2016 before again being left out for the COVID-delayed Tokyo Games three years ago.
On Tuesday, her team improved their score by more than three points from qualification but fell just 0.234 point short of Brazil, who took the bronze.
“Honestly, it’s hard. But at the same time, I’m super proud of the team,” she said.
“We knew all we were capable of today, even despite having some mistakes and falls. We came out and gave absolutely everything we had and no one can ask any more than that.”
Downie performs some of the highest difficulty moves on the asymmetric bars and will be vying for a podium finish in that apparatus final on Sunday.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; additional reporting by Karen Braun; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
