Ellie Downie: British gymnastics star retires for 'mental health and happiness'

The history-making athlete is stepping back from gymnastics to look after her mental wellbeing

British gymnastics star Ellie Downie has announced on social media that she's retiring from the sport aged 23.

She said in a tweet that she made the decision to prioritise her "mental health and happiness".

Ellie won 12 gold medals during her time as a pro senior gymnast.

Ellie said in her post: "After a really tough last few years I've made the decision to prioritise my mental health and happiness.

"Gymnastics has been my life for as long as I can remember and I am proud of everything I was fortunate enough to achieve.

"Competing and winning medals for Great Britain has meant everything and more to me and I'll miss it enormously."

Ellie Downie's amazing career

Ellie Downie won four youth Olympic medals

Ellie Downie started gymnastics when she was just three years old.

In 2012, she got her first big win at the School Games, where she won six gold medals.

Then, aged 15, she won a bronze medal at the European Championships in France.

This was an historic win, as it made her the first British woman to win an international all-around medal in her first senior year.

And this was on top of studying for her GCSEs!

This achievement bagged her a place on the 2016 Olympic team, and so she headed off to Rio De Janeiro in Brazil.

Rio was Ellie's first and only Olympics at senior level

There, she won 13th place overall in the all-rounder final.

However this came after hitting her head during a bad fall whilst performing one of her routines.

And a year later, at the European Championships in Romania, she became the first British gymnast to win all-around gold at a major international championship.

Ellie competing during the 2019 World championships in Germany

Ellie has not competed since the 2019 World Championships, where she won bronze on the vault.

She decided to take time out from gymnastics after her brother died of a sudden heart attack in 2021.

In 2020, Ellie and her sister Becky spoke out against "cruel" behaviour within British gymnastics, and called for an end to the bad treatment of young gymnasts.