'Helping to change gymnastics better than medals'
The influence British gymnast Becky Downie and her sister Ellie will have had reforming the sport will better anything she achieved as an athlete, according to the two-time Olympian.
Becky, 32, spoke out in 2020 alongside her younger sibling about "ingrained" and "completely normalised" abusive issues in the sport.
The Whyte Review, published in 2022, found physical and emotional abuse within gymnastics in Britain to be "systemic", and led to the governing body issuing a 40-point action plan called Reform '25 to make changes in the sport.
Ellie retired at the age of 23 in January 2023 because of concerns about her mental health, while Becky - a two-time Commonwealth Games and three-time European Championship gold medal winner - has focused on competing for Team GB at the Paris Olympics this summer.
"Medals are great, but what we have managed to do for the history of sport and knowing that we have had such a positive impact on the future of children's lives, and not just kids but coaches coming through, that’s something I never imagined we would be able to do," Becky told BBC East Midlands Today.
"When we started in the sport everyone was like, 'This is just how gymnastics is', so to be able to say we were the people or part of the contributing people that actually made the sport a better place, you can't ask for any more than that."
The sisters from Nottingham were appointed MBEs in the New Year Honours five months ago for their services to the sport of gymnastics and also for their services to fellow gymnasts.
Ellie won 12 medals during her senior career, including a historic all-round European Championship gold in 2017, and said the MBE was "massive" and felt like proof they "had done the right thing".
"We didn't think it had that much of a high impact," Ellie said when looking back at first going public.
"It came with consequences for us at certain points, so there were times where we didn’t know if we did the right thing because we were jeopardising our careers, but we knew we were just trying to help improve the sport."
The pair spoke of going to Windsor Castle to collect their honours, and said sharing the experience with their family was both "surreal" and "special".
Ellie, who now lives and works in Birmingham, said she has "happily" watched her big sister try once again to reach the Olympics.
Becky missed out on the 2020 Tokyo Games, and if she makes Team GB this year her selection will come 16 years after her first appearance at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Selection now would also come after a serious Achilles injury, suffered in June 2022, kept her sidelined for nine months.
"After everything, it's what I chose to stay for," said Becky about what selection for the Olympics would mean to her.
"What I've actually managed to achieve to get back to this position is huge."
