Category: Gymnastics

The 32-year-old has shown courage and resilience to reach Paris after suffering tragedy and a cruel backlash for exposing abuse in her sport

The 2019 world championships seemed to mark a transformative moment in Becky Downie’s lengthy gymnastics career. After years of tireless work, heartbreak, and multiple demonstrations of her immense resilience, Downie’s grit yielded a first individual world medal – silver on the uneven bars. Less than a year before the Tokyo Games, she was ready for her ultimate goal of chasing Olympic glory.

Instead, she was to endure further pain. “The last couple of years have been the hardest cycle I’ve ever done, for so many different reasons,” she says.

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American gymnast has every chance of adding to her medal haul in Paris three years after heartbreak in Japan

As Simone Biles sprinted down the vault runway at the beginning of the women’s team final of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the eyes of the world followed her every stride. Biles had already compiled an unprecedented, record-breaking career, marking herself as the greatest ever gymnast and pushing the limits of gymnastics far beyond what anyone could have imagined. Her combination of technique, air-awareness and power had driven her to unheard of successes; she had not been beaten in an all-around competition since 2013.

But something was wrong. Although the famed Amanar vault is one of the most difficult skills in the world, Biles has made it look easy throughout her career. This time, though, she completed only one-and-a-half twists, a full twist short of the planned vault, before landing in a deep squat as she barely managed to stay on her feet.

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• Smoking is illegal for anyone under 20 in Japan
• Miyata was an outside chance for medal in Paris

Shoko Miyata, the 19-year-old captain of the Japan women’s artistic gymnastics team, has withdrawn from the squad for the Paris Games after violating the team’s code of conduct by smoking, the Japanese Gymnastics Association (JGA) said on Friday.

JGA officials said Miyata arrived in Japan on Thursday after leaving the team’s training camp in Monaco for investigation, which confirmed the violation including drinking alcohol. The women’s squad would compete with four athletes instead of five, the JGA told a media conference.

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