If the mark of a true winner is the ability to smile in the face of adversity, then Jamie Downer is a champion.

Since coming to the Penn State gymnastics team, the Southampton, England, native withstood the thousands of miles that separate him from his family, recovered from a knee injury that sidelined him for the entire fall practice season and most recently, overcame the flu.

"I was just on an all-time low, I guess," the sophomore said. "Then to make matters worse, I became depressed into the season because I was scoring so low.

"I went out against New Mexico and did the best I could. I was sniffling all over the place."

Last semester, Downer injured his knee when he landed straight-legged after falling from the high bar. He was unable to work out with the team for the remainder of the semester. He began a rehabilitation program concentrating on his upper body strength and slowly brought the knee around to recovery.

"It was just starting to come around when they broke for the Christmas vacation," Coach Karl Schier said. "Then he made the mistake of not really working out very well at home. It's sort of a by-word in gymnastics that a three-day vacation for a gymnast is a major vacation because of the nature of the skills involved.

"When you take a couple of months, you're starting from scratch. I assumed he learned a lesson from that and he won't find himself in that same position again."

In the team's first meet against Syracuse, Downer managed to score a 50.05 in the all-around, but fell to a 49.75 in the Lions' next two outings due to the flu. Until two weeks ago, he had only scored above a 9.0 three times. Considering Downer's lowest all-around score of the freshman season was 51.10, things were not looking up for the sophomore.

But in the last two meets, Downer has begun to return to his old self. Two weeks ago against Navy at Temple he jumped to 53.60, and last weekend against Navy his all-around shot up to 54.30, giving him a third place finish.

"I still have a lot of touching up to do," he said. "That wasn't the best meet of my career. I still get bogged up every now and then, but I feel a lot better. It just felt good to be back in the swing of things."

The effects of those two meets on Downer's confidence level were immeasurable.

"I want to do gymnastics again," Downer said. "If you had asked me that a couple of weeks ago, I would've said no. I was pretty bad, but now it's getting a lot better."

If Downer had left gymnastics, he would've turned his back on a 15-year career. Back in England, the young Downer trained at the Southampton Amateur Gymnastics Club, the same school as former Penn Staters Terry Bartlett and Ian Shelley as well as teammate Karl Abraham. That made him an obvious recruit for Schier.

"His liveliness attracted me," Schier said. "I didn't exactly know how old he was, but he seemed like an extremely small, young boy and he was around the gym like flies around a horse. He was all over the place and very active, eager to learn and also impress.

"Almost from that moment, I kept track of him to see if he was staying with the sport and really applying himself."

By moving to State College, Downer added some support to one of his teammates, a fellow countryman.

"It was nice to have somebody come over and join me," said Abraham, a native of Portsmouth, England. "It's very helpful because I often really miss home and he helps out a lot. We grew up together in gymnastics and it was great to see him come here. It was like he brought a little bit of Great Britain with him."

Listed as only 5' 4", Downer often looks unimposing on the floor, but looks are deceiving in his case.

"He's definitely selected the sport for him," Schier said. "He's obviously not a basketball player! But when I think of Downer, I always think of strength -- inherent strength. He doesn't necessarily look like a powerful gymnast, but he's very, very strong."

The 1986 British Junior national all-around champion, Downer has continually proven himself worthy of that praise. Last year he scored a 55.25 in the NCAAs, scoring above a 9.10 in five of the six events, including a season high 9.40 in the floor exercise.

Eventually, Downer would like to work his way onto Great Britain's Olympic team. He plans to prepare himself for that goal this summer at the World University Games in Brazil. However, once that goal is either realized or bypassed, Downer has no further aspirations in the world of gymnastics.

"Once I'm done with gymnastics, I'm done. A lot of people say 'How can you take so much from the sport and not give any back?' " Downer said. "It's taken a lot from me, too. I've taken from it and it's taken from me, so I'll call it quits."