COMEBACK – Ep. 2 // The Becky Downie Documentary
[Music] big competition in Cardiff for Becky Downey coming up because the English championships a couple of weeks ago didn't go according to plan she need needs really to deliver a compelling performance to get back into the national team to be selected for the European championships I know the work that I've done and I also know how sick I felt whilst I was trying to compete at the English so coming off the back of it was kind of just taking that feedback and then making a full reset really for the Welsh the Welsh is the last date really for me to be selected there's a a huge amount of work but I'm excited for the challenge yeah that music Becky makes me laugh when she says stuff like two weeks is a long time I think she almost sees it in hours and how many hours she can spend on the bars CU to me if someone said you've just done a competition with this many fools and you've got to turn it around in two weeks I'm kind of like oh that sounds like a big task probably just do a dismount on its own onto there and then if it's fine take it off and then take it from the sh half down okay Dismount is in a double back or a full out uh full full okay Nick to me I see him more as a friend than as a [Applause] coach do you see that yeah at the moment Nick has kind of stepped in and taken lead a little bit because my personal coach CH is out sick at the minute okay are you just going to do a dismount on its own again next touch I think I just go from the toan chap off just so it's like cence St perfect good plan okay Becky's been doing a lot of her skills for years she knows them as well as any other coach does eyes down just look like you're loading your hip a bit too much yeah I think it's I'm like anxious to I can see yeah just try to over it yeah it's not as bad as it I think it's going to be at this point in Becky's career what Becky needs most is support she needs empathy she needs a caring coach and she gets that with her coach Jenny clay I had been at knot Gymnastics Academy my whole career but I think I wanted a change of environment and I'd literally looked at different coaches different clubs all around the country and I think it was the best decision I could have ever made in terms of just having a fresh start for myself but the last few weeks I'm really grateful for Nick taking that time and stepping up whilst Jen's been out sick I still want to do one more it looks to me like you've got your eyes up and that's why you're not exactly aware of where the floor might be cuz that had a beautiful Rhythm the giant was set up perfectly because I'm scared to go here and I'm going here instead yeah I first came across Becky uh watching her on TV I think it was the Commonwealth Games 2006 in Melbourne later that year I actually started employment at the club that Becky trains at I think at that time as an emerging young coach she was super inspiring for me to learn from his fear of it been sore but is that something that you can feel by just doing like a jump off the bar like the low bar or anything just to get the confidence in a rep no I think you just need to stop being a whmp the relationship ships changed significantly since I first met Becky back in 2006 Becky is a is a different individual an athlete I'm certainly a different coach as well so the relationships evolved as we've both grown and I just see myself as being a member of her support team just keep eyes down body upright and it will just load everywhere equally it's all right that was actually better yeah I think it was it was better okay I'll leave it there yeah he old come we right it's really not actually that bad it's just scary at the minute even the highest level athletes experience fear from time to time beam can be quite challenging from a psychological perspective recovering some of those skills not only takes some physical training but some mental training too and Becky knows all too well what that process is like it's not a particularly comfortable one stay visual it's the worst skill in the world but she's been through it many times before as her ankle becomes more mobile and she's able to to train more she's getting much closer to where she wants to be it's safe it's just scary yeah nice and aggressive good nice and normal pretty good as you push from the legs allow the hip to help you get up it's that opening of the angle there which is going to give you your height right it's quite comfortable actually yeah it's good I don't like doing them but I know it's that process that I've just got to do yeah yeah psychologically that's a step forwards on the Dismount bars with regards to the ankle and loading it and here as well so yeah I'm really happy with that done Happy Days is really not even 15 minutes from here to if we've got heels on hello anyone got any moisturizer yeah light face moisturizer um no no it's fine thanks though Bey what are you weing that's a good question um c c if you with brown boots and oh yeah did I actually give you that in the end yeah do you want it back no cuz it didn't look nice on me that's yeah it's B it's giving I like you say like Tes or something pardon spers I was thinking it was Haley Bieber to be honest that's more I the five of us are like really different Gemma studied law and criminology Alex did media studies Josh went to UNI and did a sports course and then ended up being a teacher he used to work with like um underprivileged kids so that was really nice um do you have the address to hand so I don't for the restaurant no for here you know is it not what you put in the chat just type in an able haward if you're on Ms I'm not on my Mars oh what time we going to leave about 6 yeah yeah that's fine um and then to have me and Beck doing sport at such a high level like we're all super different and you come in everyone's just like it's absolute chaos but yeah it wouldn't have any other way you don't miss do you what where about no like why can't they just call you and be like where are you they can't say for example I was taking drugs right now and I got call I could ask you for pee her for pee do you know what I mean the guil would eat me alive but you could do that anywhere you put your whereabouts that you're going to be here but there's still three people here that could help you you couldn't help you know what I mean that's why you can't that's why I can't be notified I can still be tested within 12 months I mean they're not going to are who cares about me now but like but they're not I don't know that turn I'm not on it anymore I thought you said they could do yeah but I don't have to fill in anymore but they can just be like surprised but they're not going to know I'm in I imag it's not often that we all get to together Alex lives in Manchester me Jer and Ellie are all still based in Nottingham at the minute but um when we do get together I mean we love just spending time in each other's company what do you fancy fa te we're going to go to a tie place but it's not that close to you funny with food like that no I'm Li I think you are a lot pickier now I eat anything what do I not eat you've triggered me what do I not eat you just I feel like every time I suggest somewhere to eat you're just like M maybe me yeah between the five of us Josh was the fourth he was probably the most just children La back one out of all of us he just did his own thing he was really into football and Cricket just a happy bubbly person and just took life in a stride and yeah it's just crazy like it really has changed our Dynamic cuz we were such a tighten it family yeah last time I said let's go with Ty and you're like I had Ty last night and I was I did have tie last night no I have B buns that's tie that's it no it's not what is it I love family time and I love just catching up with them and especially after drop passing it just means even more that we can spend time together knowing that we've all been through the same thing together we all still have each other is is really important to us there there's nothing like losing a 24 year old brother there's nothing that like comes close to it I don't think people can really truly understand it unless you've been through it people say yeah that happened two years ago now but that's the rest of our lives like we've got a piece of our family missing and for someone to like be gone doesn't make sense it's not fair that's kind of how it feels it's forever like that's really hard to kind of get your head around for us to find out news like that on the day of like our last Olympic trial was just was mindboggling coming into 2021 we we obviously just facing challenges off the back of the gymnast Alliance hard times in the gym hard times at camp and felt like we weren't part of the program really and coming into like all the Olympic trials that just wasn't [Music] easy me and Ellie were made to feel like we were the worst people in the world we'd go into that National environment and the majority of coaches wouldn't talk to us and that was just a really hurtful a really hurtful thing like you don't expect coaches that you've worked with for years to walk into a room and not even say hi to you [Music] when we got into that train in Jim and Cardiff I mean the environment was kind of heightened gym Alliance heightened tension with people trying to fight for Olympic team places coaches would not talk to us and the atmosphere was awful the memories of being in that gym in that session were horrible I was in a bad place at the time I had a really sore achilles and went to vault which was my first apparatus and knew there was no way I was going to be able to put out a Chang in that environment with a sore achilles I knew it was just game over and I was in that much pain so I made the decision to pull out so I just kind of left back said good luck for tomorrow like let me know how it goes so I was driving home from Cardiff at like 11:00 at night and my other sister rang me and and then she obviously told me what had happened I don't even know what I was like but it was not good just crying a lot um and then my initial thought was like who on Earth is going to tell Becky I got a knock at the door and initially I thought it was a drugs tester I was like for God's sake like someone just give me a break and then um it was one of the other personal coaches and that was when I got the news then that um my brother had passed I mean it was just the most awful the awful news to get anyway but bless my mom she didn't want to give me the call herself because she knew I was in a hotel room on my own so she rang one of the other coaches to come and get me you're getting woken up in the middle of the night you get told this news you're men to have an Olympic trial the next day like what on Earth do you do well of course I'm going to go home like there was no way I was going to stay and compete so then Becky rang me and we were both just like crying like both just distraught so then she came home at like 3:00 a.m.
He had an undiagnosed heart condition orogenic cardiopathy it is a genetic condition but he had no idea that he had it and if you do have it you generally told you you shouldn't be playing sport or at least high level sport so off the back of that me and Ellie were told there a 50/50 chance that you might not be able to train anymore which we were both bit like wow like of course you'd stop training if it meant your life was at risk we all had to undergo testing and I think it's what we're going to have to have done for the rest of our lives so luckily the rest of the family at the minute all [Music] okay yay that whole day was just I guess a bit of a blur and then by the Sunday I had an email being offered another trial and I remember when my coach called me about it I was in tears and I was like I don't know what to do she was trying to sort out I think it was like a day later if she was going to do this trial in any way shape or form and I was just like how do you think about having discussions like this 2 days after the worst thing possible could ever happen to you with the gym Alliance stuff as well that kind of happened we were already worried we weren't going to get selected and then for something like that to happen she was like oh my God I don't even know what to do now because I don't know if I can go and deliver how I need to deliver but because of the way everything had fallen I felt like if I didn't that would be a very easy way to say well she didn't tral she's not going he wouldn't want he wouldn't have wanted me to stop for that reason so that was the reason why I decided to do the trial she got back into the gym like 3 days after we found out about our brother and to do an Olympic trial within a week on her own was just ridiculous I can't even like think back to the time it was just insane she was going into that final Olympic trial where she was all on her own in a in a hall and she did break down crying and to even try and do gymnastics when you feel like that is just incredible that she thought she could still go forward with the process and qualify for the Olympic team I will never ever forget the experience that I was put through for that final trial and I don't think anybody other than probably Ellie will ever understand what we went through it was literally just her like four or five judges two national coaches a physio with all eyes on her doing Tri 10 days after our brother passed away unexpectedly like you can't even put into words how sorry I feel like I'm going to get upset but like how crazy that experience actually was and no one even like understands that at [Music] all I'm like for her to just go through that on her own was so hard to watch sorry I'm going [Music] [Applause] St I actually don't even know how she could put all that to the side and kind of like forget about it like not in like a bad way but like I think it just shows like how mentally strong she is and like just going through all of that with her brother sh like 5 days later or something like you just like it's just crazy and [Music] then it is always always heartbreaking when a fantastic athlete misses out on an Olympic Games at the World Championships before the Olympic Games she had performed spectacularly in that uneven bars final and had won the silver medal so it's very easy to understand why there was so much shock and sadness at her missing out on the Olympic team obviously finding out she didn't even make the games it was just like why did you even put like she wasn't even a reserve like why did you even put her through all of that just say you're not going to pick her like we all went to pick Josh's flowers she couldn't come cuz she needed to be in the gym cuz she had a trial in like 3 days just sit her down and say look we don't want you to go through all of this at the same time you're grieving to watch her go through that personally it was awful the one thing that I hold on to from that horrible horrible trial experience if I can do that bar routine in that gym under those circumstances then I can do a bar routine any time any place [Music] anywhere massive competition this really for Becky dowy here in card because the English championships didn't go as she was hoping I was quite scared to sleep because the last time I was in cardi and I went to bed I was woken up in the middle of the night with the most awful news she comes to Wales having to really convince with her displays [Music] today it was the place we got told about our brother passing away so for her to even go to that location starting route to sport Wales National Center I wouldn't go back there cuz I just know how much emotion it would bring back to me and I think I would really struggle to perform in that place after the lights turn left onto Park Place then turn right and you already know what your One Touch will be coming into the Walsh Nick was really on the ball in terms of making sure the bars were right making sure what our game plan was going in HCK sh just preserve energy still y so put the board in central yeah cool so I just felt a lot more settled with all those tiny little factors at the roundabout turn left then arrive at your [Music] destination once you get out your car and you actually are walking up to that venue the emotion surrounding it you have to in some ways try and put it to one side and just focus on what you were doing [Applause] [Music] [Music] too much on this side with the complexity of Becky's routine and the intricacy of the elements Becky quite rightly is very particular about how she wants the bars to be touch today but it's time we get it right it's just going to take a bit of time we've got time so with the beam you might have springboard that gets taken out and that's it on the floor there's not really any adjustments and on the Vault just set in the board so the most adjustments that go on in women's artistic gymnastics are on the bars that one out please too it's too tight yeah it's way too much 50 seconds to both prepare the bars as well as have their ontouch warm-up and if you're trying to adjust multiple cables you soon find that you're in a stressful situation touch yesterday a Formula 1 driver would be absolutely aware if there was a slight difference or change in the car that they were driving they're that in tune with their equipment that they'd feel it and it's exactly the same for Becky when she jumps up on the bar we've got to get that right that setting was on from yesterday does that feel okay or not uh yes yeah yeah okay just a bit more tension on your turn that's all [Music] yeah oh done back look bit stiff so stiff it's all right got a bit of time to mobilize it now yeah you look good up there look really good nice Pace nice and confident good technique feels good mhm [Music] I think just knowing that it's Europeans or no Europeans based on this performance adds another element of stress to it [Music] valc you think about the investment of time that Becky makes think about the journey that she's had up until now and how much is right on every single routine that she performs I'd be lying if I said I didn't lose a little bit of sleep over it the night before well this is such a huge competition for Becky Downey there's no question that the Decora gymnast has got what it takes to deliver it's just a matter of doing it here in card Good Start into the edge of a nicely done well performed Maloney into the hindle that is beautiful so far so good she threw the Lion Share of the routine now oh that is unrecognizable from what we saw at the English championships Becky is down backing Cardiff are looking tremendous of your order for her to then go back to Cardiff literally in Aura for for going and doing it and putting out a routine how she did after having made mistakes at the English to then be at the Welsh finish or Dismount and be sort of like mic drop I'm back lot so many positives so many there was a lot of emotion behind it it kind of just all really hit I'm glad I had that time after to just get myself back together again before [Music] being [Music] [Applause] and breathe and relax they're proud of you a done I put so many months of work into that it still needs a lot of work but I'm really excited to keep building on what I've got the biggest thing was for myself to be like I know it's still in there and um I'm really excited to see what I can still do over this next year now she is a kind of Elder stateswoman of the British team massively respected she has set the standard that everyone else has tried to live up to and in her place winning the gold medal from Amber Valley Rebecca Downey [Applause] [Music] I've said to her Becky if you stop gymnastics today you walk away with your head held high you have historic records medal so many things to be proud of it's not since I've now retired that I've kind of seen the magnitude of what we have done you're welcome if everything did go to plan I went to Paris and I had a gold medal around my neck what I did for gym Alliance to me is still going to be the most significant thing I've ever done in this sport you're welcome I think she needs to realize like how iconic she is in the sport because she genuinely is and has achieved so so much that she has to be proud of it regardless of the outcome lovely thank you so much you're [Music] welcome do you want to share what news you got your youday um yeah so I got the email that I'm on the team for the Euros so I was pretty pretty exciting everything felt like it was getting so messed up but I did put in the work for this outcome so it's really nice to kind of finally have some happy news I was just a little kid that wanted to do gymnastics and it's completely changed my life I hope that I can inspire people just to continue to chase your dreams and not give up if you believe in yourself that is the most important thing if you think you can do something then don't let anybody tell you otherwise I know I'm not going to be able to do this forever so the time I have left I want to make the most of that Becky Downey has spent her career raging against the dying of the light she will finish when she chooses to finish and maybe that is the greatest lesson that we can all take from the Becky Dy story do this your way do this on your terms you write at the end Becky Downey of Great Britain with a super Dismount she has returned you don't ever doubt Becky Downey you never doubt Becky Downey
