Sports star reveals coaches searched bags for food aged 10 as she 'starved'
A Nottingham gymnast has revealed how coaching staff went through her bags to search for food when she was just 10, and how she was ‘sat on’ during stretching exercises. Ellie Downie who is retiring from the sport only aged 23 said she wasn't sure if any daughter of hers should go into the sport.
Ellie said: “We were definitely sat on by coaches for stretching reasons. I’ve definitely had my bag searched for food. It all happens when you’re so young. The first time it happened to me I was on a training camp and I was like ten [years old].“They just search your bags for food to make sure you’ve not brought any other food with you. But you normally do that because you can’t eat when you’re on a training camp.
Speaking about concerns she has for her sister Rebecca who still competes in the sport, she said: “I worry that she potentially won’t get picked because of the stuff that we’ve said and it’s already happened to her once. I do worry about her. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes that people don’t know and people just see the end result of you being on the podium.”
Ellie previously said she had constantly been made to feel “ashamed” about her weight. “From 14 years old I’ve been told to diet consistently,” she said. “At one time at this age, again after being told I was too heavy, I was told by a nutritionist to provide food diaries of everything that entered my mouth and send daily pictures of me in my underwear to ensure I wasn’t lying."
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