The Game Changers
In this award-winning podcast Sue Anstiss talks to trailblazers in women sport. These are the individuals who are knocking down barriers and challenging the status quo for women and girls everywhere. Along with openly sharing their historic careers, what drives them and how they’ve dealt with tough challenges, each episode explores key issues for equality in sport and beyond.
We’re incredibly grateful to Sport England who support The Game Changers through a National Lottery award.
You can find out about all the guests at https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers Fearless Women in Sport
The Game Changers
Jessica Ennis-Hill: On being the poster girl at a home Olympics
As we look forward to Paris 2024, we're sharing this previous episode with Olympian Dame Jess Ennis-Hill which was released on October 27, 2020.
In this episode, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill explores her incredible journey from an enthusiastic young girl at a summer camp to becoming Olympic and three-time World Champion in Heptathlon.
It was a privilege to talk to one of Britain’s greatest all-time athletes as she took us through her early days, remembering the excitement of school competitions and the challenge of balancing her sporting career with life as a young woman.
Jess talks about the athlete-coach relationship that propelled her to winning ways, their contrasting personalities and communication styles, along with the patience required for long term success.
Talking candidly about the physical and mental challenges of being a full-time athlete and a university student, Jess reflects on how a devastating injury before the Beijing Olympics became a turning point in her career and how sports psychology played a pivotal role in her recovery and continued success.
Jess shares her extraordinary career's emotional highs and lows, from the intense pressure of being the poster girl for London 2012 to the joy of winning her gold medal on ‘Super Saturday’. She also opens up about balancing motherhood with elite training, and the extraordinary motivation her son Reggie provided for her comeback at the Beijing World Championships.
Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.
Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers
Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media
A Fearless Women production
Hello and welcome to the Game Changers, the podcast where you'll hear from extraordinary trailblazing women in sport, breaking down barriers and challenging the status quo for women and girls everywhere. I'm Sue Anstiss, a founding trustee of the Women's Sport Trust Charity and the founder of Fearless Women, a company with a powerful ambition to drive positive change for women's sport. I'm delighted to say that this series of the Game Changers is supported by Sport England, who have done so much to tackle the inequalities women face across all areas of sport, From the much-celebrated this Girl Can campaign and initiatives that help shape school sport for girls to schemes that encourage more female volunteers in the workforce, support female coaches and officials and ensure more women from all backgrounds take leadership positions on the boards of our sports organizations. Today it's my absolute privilege to talk to a personal heroine of mine, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Olympic champion and three times world champion heptathlete. I started the interview by asking Jess how she started in sport.
Jess Ennis-Hill:I started athletics when I was about nine or ten years old, so it was literally my parents took me to a summer camp, me and my sister, and it was really just an opportunity for us to be active, to burn off some energy and also for a way of, you know, just keeping us entertained for two weeks, um, and out the house. And from that point on I just, you know, I loved running, I loved trying all the different events, I loved the competitive element, I loved, you know, trying to be the best I could be, trying to win prizes and stand on the podium and, yeah, I was kind of hooked from that point onwards.
Sue Anstiss:And do you remember the first time you competed? You talk about the podium, then. What was your first event? Can you remember that?
Jess Ennis-Hill:My first competition Gosh, that is so hard. I think it was probably an event for the school. So I remember doing the English schools. That was, you know, our Olympics. At that stage it was the biggest thing you could take part in. And I remember doing the Yorkshire Championships and the South Yorkshire Championships. So I have lots of memories of doing lots of competitions but not very many moments where I actually stood on the podium at that stage. It was always just doing the events, trying my hardest and hoping to be on the podium but not actually getting on the podium until I was a lot older and sadly lots of girls don't really connect with sport.
Sue Anstiss:So did your school friends understand your love of athletics and sport at the time?
Jess Ennis-Hill:not especially. I think it's quite hard at that stage. I think, like, like you say, you're you know, you're going through so many changes. You're at school and you're trying to make friends with everyone and you're trying to be like everyone. You're trying to fit in in every way. And at school I was obviously different from the start because I didn't do everything else my friends were doing, because I was training after school and I was competing at the weekend. So there was an element of missing out on things and also my friends saying, oh why don't you come out this weekend? Why don't you do this, why don't you join in? And I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to and I wanted to do what all my friends were doing. But I also wanted to do athletics and I wanted to train. I wanted to get better. So I think it took a few years for my friends to kind of understand my commitment to athletics and also what it meant to me, but also what it could potentially become. Absolutely yeah and you?
Sue Anstiss:you started working with the coach at just 13. What kind of ambitions and goals were you setting so young at that?
Jess Ennis-Hill:stage. I think my coach probably had lots of goals and hopes for me at that stage. He was a very organized and structured coach. So he would you know he'd plan years ahead. He was all about short-term plans and short-term goals, but also having a very much a long-term plan as to how he could get me through various stages of competitions, through from junior to senior and and onto the world stage. So he very much did have a plan at that stage. Um, for me it was just enjoyment, it was a hobby, it was something I loved doing. So he was very, very clever in the way that he, you know, he made it enjoyable for me at that stage and he taught me all the events within the heptathlon. And then, you know, little by little he would introduce a new level of of athletics to me. So a new style of competition, a new ambition, a new goal that we could both focus on. So it was very much a gradual process that's interesting, isn't it?
Sue Anstiss:because I think it's. It's such a long journey to achieve what you wanted to achieve, and many young people now want things so instantly, almost so how did you maintain your your patience over that time?
Jess Ennis-Hill:but, as you say, he kept introducing new, new elements yeah, I think no, that's absolutely right and I would say, before I had kids, I was a very impatient person. Um, I think most sports people are they. You know, they see something and they have a feeling, a desire, an aspiration of what they want to achieve and they almost want it instantly, like everyone in this world. Now you order something online, it's there later on that day.
Jess Ennis-Hill:You kind of want everything to happen straight away and it is a massive learning curve as an athlete that it is a journey and it's how you get from A to B. You know, in the best way possible, it's almost recognizing and accepting that you don't want to be at your absolute best when you're a junior. You don't want to be peaking when you're 15. You want to be at your best, you know, in your mid-20s or whenever that stage is right for you to peak within your sport. And I think my coach is very good at explaining that to me. He always made me understand that this was a long-term process and, however frustrating it might be and there will be successes and failures along the way it was a long-term journey and you know, when we reach that, that end point, it would be so much sweeter than the rushing for a process and not quite achieving our goals together.
Sue Anstiss:That's amazing that he had such foresight, isn't it to plan ahead? And obviously you stayed with him for your whole career, which is very different to someone like Denise Lewis, who thought it was important to change her coaches as her needs changed as an athlete. So why do you think that works so well for you, staying with the same coach the whole time?
Jess Ennis-Hill:Yeah, I think it is very, very rare and you do have, you know, many athletes that go through different coaches because you get to certain points within your career where you feel, yeah, I think it is very, very rare and you do have, you know, many athletes that go through different coaches because you get to certain points within your career where you feel that you've kind of had all you can, you know, have from your coach and learn from your coach and you need a new direction because you're constantly changing. I think for me, I was so lucky that we me and Tony grew as a team together. So at the beginning of my career he, you know he would admit that he didn't know everything about the heptathlon. He had a long way to go and a lot to learn and we kind of went on that journey together. So whenever it felt that we got to a stage where, you know, I might be really frustrated and think, gosh, does he actually know what he's talking about? With the long jump you know I'm not improving what we're going to do he would look to the next level.
Jess Ennis-Hill:So he would speak to various different coaches, he would go on a course. He would just constantly be trying to gain insight and further his you know his himself as a coach personally, and in turn, that allowed me to keep growing and keep performing the way I needed to. So it was very much a, you know, a journey together where we both grew um as an athlete, as a coach, and it's very, very rare but he, you know, he supported me from, you know, like a 13 year old girl that had no idea about the heptathlon and actually didn't really enjoy it, to a 30 year old woman that had won, you know, olympic gold medal, world championship gold medals and and everything else. So it's a fantastic journey that we've both been on and you weren't the typical build for a heptathlete.
Sue Anstiss:You know a young age, so why do you think he had that vision? I guess to know that you had that potential to succeed. Um.
Jess Ennis-Hill:I'm not sure, to be honest. I think when I started athletics, I, you know, I just ran around. I had no idea that I had any talent at all, I just enjoyed doing it. And I think when I started athletics, I, you know, I just ran around, I had no idea that I had any talent at all, I just enjoyed doing it. And I think he said that, you know, he saw, you know he saw me run a few times and I think as a coach you just have that eye for you know an athlete and you know he was very impressed by how springy I was, like my running style, which was very raw. You know I'd not learned any techniques or had any coaching before. So I think he saw something that was very raw and very natural and he knew that he could coach me in a way that could enhance that and improve my performance very much so over the next few years.
Sue Anstiss:Reading your book it's clear that things weren't always completely plain sailing with Chell Tony and a little bit of conflict there. Do you think that's a good thing to have that relationship with a coach in that way?
Jess Ennis-Hill:Yeah, I think so I don't think I've ever met an athlete and coach relationship where it's completely smooth all the time.
Jess Ennis-Hill:You know it's a stressful environment that you're both in.
Jess Ennis-Hill:You know you're trying to perform the best you can, you're having setbacks, you're having disappointments, you're having to deal with injuries, you're having to learn how to communicate really well in really high-pressured and intense situations. And you're also for me and Tony, we were two very, very different personalities and characters. So I had to learn how, you know, he ticks, how his brain works and what drives him and what frustrates him and how he feels he should communicate with me and vice versa. He had to learn how I responded well in pressure situations, how I dealt with setbacks and the best way to communicate to me when I was, you know, turning up to training and not that motivated that day. It's all these small dynamics that are so, so important between an athlete and a coach and it does take a long time to, you know, to understand each other fully. I'm not sure we still do after all these years. But it worked so well and you know we managed to find a way to get the best out of both of us.
Sue Anstiss:I've always thought it must be so tough to master seven events. There's always something that needs improving. How did you personally cope with that challenge of trying to excel across all things?
Jess Ennis-Hill:It was definitely varied and it kind of keeps you on your toes. So there's, like you say, you know the hurdles might be going really well and you're feeling really positive about that, but the javelin's terrible and the long jump's not right. So there's always something that you have to focus on. You're never really in a state where everything's gone well and you're completely happy. So there's that element of variety. You're never bored. You know. It's not like doing an individual event where you go down to the track and it's the same thing constantly. It's always different and I think that's what I enjoyed the most about the heptathlon.
Sue Anstiss:Excellent, and you studied psychology at university. So you were training as an athlete full-time and studying too. So how did you manage to juggle? I've got two daughters going off to university at the moment, but how did you manage to juggle those things of training and studying too?
Jess Ennis-Hill:yeah, um it was difficult. Definitely it was hard in the respect that I I think, as the individual that I am, I wanted to be the best I could be at both of them. I wanted to put all my energy into my studying in case athletics didn't go the way I hoped, but I also wanted to put all my energy into my studying in case athletics didn't go the way I hoped, but I also wanted to put all my energy into athletics and and be the best I could be and start picking up medals. Um, so it was definitely a balancing act. It was about being organized and structured in my days and making sure that I could fit everything in.
Jess Ennis-Hill:But I was really glad that I I went to uni and I I studied something away from sport. It was nice to, you know, to do psychology and it was something that really interested me at the time and still does, and it allowed me some separation to what I did on the track, so I could go there, I could focus solely on competing and training, and then I could come home and almost switch off from that side of my life and direct my energy onto something completely different. So, yeah, it was definitely a balancing act, but something that I've yeah, I'm very proud that I did um.
Sue Anstiss:It's something that um was difficult at the time, but definitely worth it and do you think what you learned on the course helped you as an athlete as well, in terms of what you studied?
Jess Ennis-Hill:yeah, a lot of people do ask me that and I think that there are elements that cross. It's psychology, it's human behavior, it's how we all react in our various day-to-day situations. So I do think it helped me. It helped me to understand, you know, the brain and how it works and how we react in certain situations, and you know, as years went by and I finished uni and graduated and obviously carried on with my athletics we use sports psychology as well to help us as a team me and Tony to communicate and get the best out of our situations within competitions, but also just to understand how to perform at your best. You can be physically incredible and the best athlete out there, but mentally you have to have that component as well, and it was understanding how, how that worked for me on the track as well.
Sue Anstiss:I was going to ask, actually in terms of your understanding and the sports psychology, how that impacted you when you got injured ahead of Beijing. So that must have been so devastating for you on that kind of pathway to success at the time.
Jess Ennis-Hill:Yeah, it was absolutely the biggest blow of my career at that stage and you know, I kind of blissfully been floating through my career to that point where I was still very young and naive to injury and just kind of just improving every year and doing what I did and it was, you know, relatively easy at that stage until that. You know, that moment when I picked up three stress fractures in my right foot and everything just stopped. You know, relatively easy at that stage until that. You know that moment when I picked up three stress fractures in my right foot and everything just stopped. You know I had the worry that I was going to miss maybe a week or two weeks off training and then, you know, I was told it was months I was going to miss the Olympics and it was a career threatening injury and you know, there was hope that I would get back to my best, but it wasn't guaranteed. Hope that I would get back to my best but it wasn't guaranteed.
Jess Ennis-Hill:So it was just an absolute blow to me and my whole team and I do think psychology and things that I learned during my degree and, more than anything, the people around me. You know the support that I had from my family, my boyfriend, my you know my team at the track. They all believed in me and they all had that passion to to help me succeed and bring me back to where I was. And without having those people around me, I probably would have just I don't know like slumped into a bit of a depression really, because you, you know, you feel that everything's kind of crumbled down around you and I hadn't even really started my career and I was, you know, faced with the fact that it might end at that stage.
Jess Ennis-Hill:Yeah, it was hard and there was lots of moments of why has this happened to me? It's not fair. And then moments of right okay, I'm getting myself back, I'm going to train, I'm going to do, you know, I'm going to do all upper body work so that I'm really strong in my upper body and that will help my throws. And then I'll focus on my lower body when I can and when my injury is right. So, yeah, it was a very, very challenging time.
Sue Anstiss:Do you think you'd have had the success you've had if you hadn't had that injury in 2008?
Jess Ennis-Hill:No, I honestly don't think so. I think at the time I would say to myself okay, I will look back at this time in a few years and think right, this happened for a reason. This was part of my journey, my long-term plan. But obviously at the time when you're injured and you can't do anything, it's very hard to see you know that reason why it might have happened. But I honestly think that that was part of my journey and it kind of made me just stop and think. You know what I am going to pick up injuries. I have to be sensible about the way I train. Rest is a massive part of being an athlete. And it also gave me perspective and made me understand, firstly, what I'd achieved to that point, but also how important it was to me and how I wanted to keep improving and I hadn't, you know, by any means reached my destination. So it definitely fueled me, you know. It just gave me that motivation to want to be even better and come back even stronger.
Sue Anstiss:And you did so. Moving on to 2012, you were, quite literally, the poster girl for London 2012. So how did that feel at the time to be that high profile around the Games?
Jess Ennis-Hill:Very bizarre. It was so, so strange because it was my first Olympics. So I'd had no previous experience of an Olympic environment. I'd done world championships and Europeans, but an Olympics is very, very different. And then it was a home Olympics and it wasn't just attracting those sports fans from around the world, it was attracting everyone. So friends and family who perhaps weren't that into athletics or sport. Everybody knew about it, everybody knew the Olympics was happening and then, kind of out of nowhere, there was no kind of sit down you're going to be the face of the Olympics. It was a really strange process that just kind of evolved. And I look back now and I think, gosh, what an opportunity, what an amazing, unique position I was in. It was a lot of pressure and it was very stressful, but an incredible opportunity and to be able to deliver the way I did and have those great memories, I couldn't have asked for more really.
Sue Anstiss:I love the story of you not being able to go into the fish and chip shop because that massive Powerade poster.
Jess Ennis-Hill:I know I'd forgotten all those memories it was. It was so bizarre because there were huge posters like that all around like my local area and massive ad campaigns just everywhere and it was the strangest feeling, um. But it was kind of like I just had to remain like normal and just very focused and just kind of laugh it off to the side. Oh there I am again on another big coaster and just keep really focused with my team and just go to the track and do the same training sessions and get ready in the same way that I'd prepared for any other competition and just keep really, really focused. But it was hard. It was definitely hard.
Sue Anstiss:Did you ever wish you could compete with less profile? So just to be like Greg Rutherford, for instance, who wasn't really on our radar until you know, super Saturday and winning gold there. Was that ever a desire for you, well?
Jess Ennis-Hill:I'd never. I didn't really envision what it was going to be like anyway, and I'd never experienced an Olympics, I'd never been part of an Olympics, I had never been the face of an Olympics, so I had no idea. I was kind of naively going into it. And actually I suppose I am the kind of athlete that I love performing in front of a massive stadium, like with all the crowd there, everybody cheering your name. I love that adrenaline of competing.
Jess Ennis-Hill:So for me was I was quietly confident, I was doing the sessions that I needed to. I knew I was fit, I knew I was strong, I was injury free and, of course, a million things can go wrong within the heptathlon, but I was just, you know, chipping away quietly and doing what I always did. So, yeah, it was, it was strange, but I suppose, looking back now, I'm just very, very grateful I had that opportunity, because not many athletes get to experience a home olympics for one, but a home olympics the way I did, so yeah, I don't think I would change anything, definitely not let's talk about London and that incredible two days.
Sue Anstiss:Can you remember what it felt like when you walked out onto the track on that Friday morning in London?
Jess Ennis-Hill:yeah, I mean that sticks with me forever. I remember waking up early that morning, um, because we have to have breakfast and get down to the track and start warming up really early, um, and I just remember feeling so nervous I just couldn't really eat my breakfast and the team were there around me. We all go down to breakfast together and you know everyone's just having really light conversations and joking around and trying to keep me, you know, happy and making me laugh. But I was just so nervous because you're at that stage where you've done all you can do, you've done all your training, you're not injury free, you're ready to go, you just want to begin. You know you want to start the event.
Jess Ennis-Hill:And I remember warming up on the track and just actually feeling really good, feeling feeling nervous, but feeling quite fast over the hurdles. I remember doing some drills and thinking, gosh, these hurdles are coming up on me really quick and it felt strange and I was like, is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? I don't know. And then, obviously, when I stepped out onto the track, it was glorious sunshine and the crowd was all there. There was in. You know, there wasn't an empty seat. I'd never stepped out for the hurdles with a crowd that amazing, and it was just that feeling. I was in the best shape of my life, I had no injuries, I was just ready to go and having that crowd and that adrenaline just gave me that, that absolute boost that I needed just to run that time that I did and it's an incredible time, isn't it so?
Sue Anstiss:the fastest time ever in a heptathlon, I think, a British record. You set that day as well. So when you, when you'd finished that race, did you then feel that you were on for gold? Do you get a point in the series when you actually think that, uh, you really were in a good position?
Jess Ennis-Hill:I try not to allow myself to go there and think too much about medals. I just very much focus on a process. It's a process of going through every event and ticking them off and having solid performances and gauging roughly where you are, but not thinking about that gold medal or a medal. But I knew when I crossed the line I saw the time, I was literally in shock. I was just picturing my hands in the air like what just happened. It was insane, you know, to run that time the fastest time I'd ever run in my life, and to run it there for the first event of the Olympics, you know, in the heptathlon, was, you know, I could not have asked for more. So I knew I'd set myself up really well and I just had to keep that momentum, keep that energy and that positivity and roll that into the next six events.
Sue Anstiss:Excellent, and you did have a fantastic, fantastic first day. So how does it feel overnight between those two days? Do you sleep? Are you able to sleep when you go back between those two days?
Jess Ennis-Hill:Oh, it's so hard because you, I think maybe the 200s, I think maybe eight o'clock or nine o'clock in the evening. So by the time you've warmed down, you've had your recovery strategy put in place, you've iced, you've eaten, you know you're getting into bed around about midnight. So it's a late, you know a late finish to the day and obviously you're physically exhausted, mentally, and you know, leaving I was just buzzing, I was thinking, gosh, this is so exciting, I've done one day. Um, what's gonna happen tomorrow? And then also at the back of your mind, you're thinking, gosh, I need to sleep, I really need to get some sleep because it's the biggest day of my life tomorrow. Um, so yeah, I remember feeling very tired but very kind of. You know you're wired, you're twitching because you're just full of adrenaline of what's just happened on that first day.
Sue Anstiss:And are there any events from London that you're most proud of of the seven when you look back?
Jess Ennis-Hill:Um, I'm extremely proud of my hurdles, because the hurdles is an event that I love and I enjoy so much, and to be able to produce that time on that day, really, you know, just blew me away. And I think the other event would be the long jump, because the long jump had been an event that I kind of struggled with throughout the whole of my career. I always had great spring for the high jump and great speed, but I was never able to to get those two to work together in the long jump, so to carry that speed into the takeoff and have a really long jump. And it was an event that was not going right for me in the lead up to the Olympics. It was just I just couldn't get it right. And I remember going to the training camp we had in Portugal and I just couldn't get on the board. I couldn't take off properly. My runway was constantly changing. I felt that it was kind of out of my control and I couldn't get it right.
Jess Ennis-Hill:And I remember having like a crisis. Well, my coach had a crisis team meeting about my long jump before we headed into London just thinking like what's going on? What are we going to do? We headed into London just thinking like what's going on, what are we going to do? And actually, thankfully, on that day I managed to get it right and I jumped 648 and I knew at that moment that that was that's what I needed. The javelin was going well, the 800 was going well. I knew I could do those two events, but the long jump was always an event that I was unsure about and when I jumped that jump it was like, oh, I remember seeing pictures of me just like fist bumping the air, like yeah, the long jump was a really big event for me.
Sue Anstiss:And then the moment when you won gold. You talk about pictures of you, but there's that amazing image isn't there, with your arms wide open as you finish the 800 metres, you take yourself back there. Can you remember what you were feeling at that time as you crossed the line? Yeah, it was pure relief.
Jess Ennis-Hill:It was really. It was relief. It was that kind of I almost felt that I was just holding my breath through the two days and I was just like really tense, just thinking, okay, I've got to do this, this is going well, but I've got the next event and I was so aware that things can go wrong just in an instant. You know, three no jumps and a long jump or bad throw in the shot put. So when I, when I did that last event and I remember just overtaking the girls on the last bend I am not normally someone that celebrates and, you know, overtly shows my emotion. I normally hold it inside and then, behind closed doors, just go crazy. But in that moment I just felt I had no control over my body. I just it was just relief. So I just flung my arms up, just in pure excitement and relief that I'd actually done it across the line, I'd finished those two days of competition and I'd come out on top.
Sue Anstiss:And did it take a while for it to sink in what you'd achieved after all those?
Jess Ennis-Hill:years. Yeah, I couldn't, I just couldn't believe it. I went through the mix zone and did all my interviews and I just I remember an official came up to me and he just wanted to come up and say congratulations and I thought he was coming to tell me I'd been disqualified, like I was. So I just could not believe that it actually happened. You know, you work for, you know the whole of your career and I always had that dream that I would become an Olympian and that I could win an Olympic medal, but never, ever, in that fashion and that way. And it's just, it's just so surreal, you know, seeing your family there in the crowd and and actually having that medal around your neck and knowing that it's all real and it's all happened and it does. It does take a long time to sink in because you've never allowed, or I never allowed, myself to think of that moment, to really imagine that moment of of doing it and achieving it. So it was just bizarre, just really, really bizarre, but incredible and what?
Sue Anstiss:what are the biggest way, I guess that fame has changed your life since then or from that moment. How do you think that changed and impacted you again?
Jess Ennis-Hill:I didn't think about what was going to happen after. I didn't think about what was going to happen after. I didn't think about the interviews and and the things and the people would want me to do and the opportunities I would have I just didn't allow myself to think about it because I felt that I would jinx myself. So when those things started to happen and you know, I had opportunities to work with different brands and do ad campaigns and do all these incredible things and meet these incredible people yeah, it was just so new and it felt so different. So I think, yeah, I suppose the biggest thing that changes that people, everybody knew who I was.
Jess Ennis-Hill:You know, I'd been doing athletics my whole career and I'd won world titles before that point, but I was still very much known within a sporting community and an athletic community. So winning the Olympics kind of just took me out to a whole new audience of people, to everybody, and everyone would come up to me and wish me well and, you know, be whispering my name and saying hi and yeah, I think that was the biggest change. Just going anywhere and everybody knowing who you are and what you'd achieved and wanting to share their super Saturday moments with you.
Sue Anstiss:Yeah, I won't do that? Did you always know you would carry on competing after London? So what sort of what drove you to keep doing that when actually you'd achieved the ultimate goal?
Jess Ennis-Hill:yeah, I mean in that moment. I remember doing interviews after, after that 800 metre final and someone saying, oh, will you do Rio Olympics? And I was like gosh, I can't even think about preparing for another Olympics now. I need to enjoy this moment. So I was very much wanted to kind of soak up that moment and enjoy what we'd achieved as a team. And, yeah, I suppose I just never felt that my career was finished at that point. I knew it would be hard getting back into training and finding a new sense of motivation, but I didn't feel that I wanted to stop. I wanted to carry on going just that little bit longer and so you did start training and then you fell pregnant with Reggie.
Sue Anstiss:So did you think about stopping then? Was it tempting then to say now is the time to to stop?
Jess Ennis-Hill:no, when I fell pregnant with Reggie, I definitely didn't have that feeling of this was the end of my career. I thought, you know, this is amazing in a new sense of like what was to happen, and I I felt really like a new sense of motivation. So I felt that, gosh, my body's going to change so much. I'm going to come back as a slightly different athlete, I'm going to have new challenges and I'm going to have my gorgeous baby boy to be part of this final journey of my career. So there was never a moment that I felt, oh gosh, no, I don't want to do this, I want to keep. You know, I wanted to keep going. I wanted to have two more years. So that whole lead up until Reggie was born, I was very much focused on coming back and finishing those last two years, going into the final Olympics.
Sue Anstiss:And how different did it feel then, coming back and competing as a mother? Did you feel there was less pressure to perform because you?
Jess Ennis-Hill:now had a baby. So when I actually came back to training, I obviously was a mum for the first time and I had all these ideas. Um, before Reggie arrived, I was thinking I'll bring him to the track and it'll be fine. I'll just, you know, have a few weeks off, but then I'll be back to where I was. I'll be sprinting the same, I'll be the same athlete. Actually that is not the case and I was very naive to think that, and I think most new mums are.
Jess Ennis-Hill:You know, you don't know how your life's going to change physically and mentally. And I remember coming down to the track and and just being so tired, you know, feeding all through the night, not having any sleep, and then coming down trying to train and trying to do hill sprints with the rest of the group I mean at the back of the group and just, I just lost all my speed. I had no, no kind of like next gear that I always had as as an athlete before um. And I remember thinking in those moments what am I doing? You know, I'm Olympic gold medalist from London, I've achieved so much.
Jess Ennis-Hill:Why am I putting this unnecessary stress on me, physically and mentally, like, why am I doing it and I think in those moments they were really important moments to me because it made me just stop and think. You know, am I doing this for the right reason? What am I wanting to achieve? What are the sacrifices? And for me, it was coming back to, to finish my career, to show Reggie that he you know what mummy can achieve and that he's there, he's a part of it, he's watching me, and that was a huge motivation for me and I wanted to do it right. I wanted to make sure that those last few years of my career, you know, really went well and that I didn't come away thinking, why didn't I just give it a go? You know, he gave me such a huge amount of motivation to carry on and, you know, to get back to where I wanted to be.
Sue Anstiss:And you did just that, didn't you? So you came back and you won that extraordinary gold at the Beijing World Championships. It was so emotional to watch when I re-watched it again before talking to you now. So how did that win compare to winning in?
Jess Ennis-Hill:London. They're so so very different. And also I felt with London thing it was just me, it was just selfish performances of making sure that I had everything I needed and that I was where I needed to be, and it was a relatively smooth journey into the London Olympics. You know, I was at the peak of my career, I was in the best shape possible, I was ready to go, and then with the Beijing World Championships, after having Reggie, it was completely different. You know, I'd had my son. Everything changed. I felt like a completely different person and I started picking up injuries.
Jess Ennis-Hill:Everything was kind of a bit of a battle. It was such a journey to get to that point and I never imagined that I would be ready to do a world championships, you know, the following year after having him, and I never imagined that I would win it. So it just standing on the podium in that moment meant so much to me because I had to firstly leave Reggie for, you know, just over two weeks to go to the other side of the world and that absolutely broke my heart, like it was the hardest thing I ever did, and I had to keep telling myself I'm doing this to, you know, to show him what his, his mummy, can achieve. And and if I'm doing it, I'm doing it properly. I'm not going there and coming fourth or fifth. I, you know, I want to do my absolute best and bring home a medal for him.
Jess Ennis-Hill:Um, so that that championship was, you know, it meant so much to me, and also the fact that I, you know, missed the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the bird's nest and didn't have that opportunity to perform there. Actually getting to that stadium and and performing the way I did, it felt like I'd gone, you know, full circle and, um, yeah, managed to kind of put those demons to bed and, yeah, it was just one of my, my proudest moments, definitely.
Sue Anstiss:And then, on on to Rio. So Silva in Rio. And at what point did you know then, it was time to stop had. Have you made that decision before you went into?
Jess Ennis-Hill:Rio yeah, I think I'd made it before and I know my coach was very keen.
Jess Ennis-Hill:He he wanted me to keep going, he wanted me to do another year because we had the, the London World Championships in London.
Jess Ennis-Hill:He was like you can do it, you can do it, and although I felt that physically I could probably carry on performing for another year after the Rio Olympics, I just didn't have that drive and that motivation to you know, to want to do it and to you know, to go for all the training again and the sacrifices, and I think in my mind I'd focused on the Rio Olympics, I'd I'd focus on a relatively short-term goal. Um, and yeah, I think for me at that point it was about, you know, getting there performing and I just felt exhausted after the Rio Olympics. I felt really mentally fatigued from the competition itself, but just generally the you know the highs and lows of that year and I wanted to just stop. And you know the highs and lows of that year and I wanted to just stop and, you know, just move to the next phase of my life, enjoying my children and doing different things, and it felt like the right time for me to do that Absolutely.
Sue Anstiss:My brother, Tim, actually was a decathlete and I've always been a bit jealous of that lovely camaraderie the multi-sport athletes have over those two days which you never had. I was a 400 hurdler, but did you miss that being part of a team when you stopped competing and and all of your support team that?
Jess Ennis-Hill:were around you too. Yeah, I think that's the one thing I absolutely miss. I I miss the adrenaline of competing, that feeling of when you stand on the start line you're ready to go. I miss that, but you know those nerves and that adrenaline. But more than anything I miss I miss my team. I miss, um, you know, the people I've spent like majority of my life with, yeah, every day in a really intense environment. You know my soft tissue therapist, derry, my physiali, rose and Tony Minichiello, my coach, and Brycey, my bi biomechanics, and it just having those people, just you know, supporting you on that journey and sacrificing so much for you as well. You know they were extremely passionate about helping me to achieve my dreams and, yeah, not seeing them every day is really strange, and that's definitely a part that I miss a lot.
Sue Anstiss:And was it wonderful to see, at the end of your career, katrina Johnson-Thompson coming through and the beginning of her pathway.
Jess Ennis-Hill:Yeah, I think that's been the most incredible thing about the event that I was part of. I think I always aspired to be like Denise Lewis and I saw her performing. I was so excited by the way she performed and what she achieved and I wanted to emulate her. And now I see Katarina coming through and Niamh Emerson and it just seems like it's this constant tradition of not just average heptathletes I mean, these are the most incredible heptathletes in the world that are, you know, from Great Britain, constantly performing and picking up medals and it's just nice to know that that tradition is continuing and that it will go on for many, many years. It's just nice to know that that tradition is continuing and that it will go on for many, many years. It's really exciting to see.
Sue Anstiss:And when you no longer had that rigorous schedule in terms of that training every day, was there a sense of loss or did you actually embrace the freedom that it brought you of not being there to train? Oh, it was freedom, yeah definitely freedom.
Jess Ennis-Hill:I think we've trained like that for so many years and everything has been. I'm a very structured person anyway, so I still take that structure to the rest of my life. But, you know, training every day, twice a day, not having weekends because you're competing or you're training, not having bank holidays and all the social elements that you miss out on. Actually, it was just really nice to to just stop and think, gosh, I don't have any, you know, running sessions to do on Monday. I don't have hills on Sunday morning. I can have a lion, if well, not really with a toddler, but I can have, you know, a lazy morning, not have to push myself physically. Um. So I definitely had a few.
Jess Ennis-Hill:I think I had maybe two months why I didn't run, I didn't do any form of exercise, I didn't see a track, I just didn't want to do anything. But then, very slowly, that habit, that routine creeps back into you and I started doing my circuits again. I ironically started running hill sessions, again by myself. I, you know I go out on lots of runs and you know it's within me. It's who I am. I love exercising, I love being active. It's just nice to do it in a kind of a non-pressured environment. Now I can exercise the way I want and on your terms, my terms and enjoy it in a completely different way.
Sue Anstiss:So that's really nice and you've now got two lovely young children and you're an ambassador for lots of fantastic brands and you've got your fitness app and company, genus, and you work with us charities. So what? How do you fit all that in? What's a week look like for you on a regular basis?
Jess Ennis-Hill:crazy, absolutely crazy. Um, yeah, weeks are are different. It's nice because I have a balance of, obviously, my two amazing children, who I get to spend loads of time with. I get to do all the school runs and nursery runs and swimming and tennis and the various things we do which I absolutely love and embrace, and then, on the other side, I get to work with some amazing people and amazing brands and charities, like you say to, to share kind of my experience of being active in sport with as many people as possible and encourage as many people to be active and take the benefits of exercise and use it for a way that works well for them. So, yeah, it's nice to have a balance in life, but life is still very busy, which is good.
Sue Anstiss:I realise that took a long time to get a hold of you for this, and how? How are things progressing with jenna's fitness and and yeah, yeah it's really exciting.
Jess Ennis-Hill:So we've had, obviously, we've all been in a very strange situation where we've been confined to our homes a bit more. So we've been able to do a lot within the app during lockdown, just re, you know, regenerating ideas and redeveloping parts of the app, which is exciting. And and yeah, there's lots to come in the next few months where we're focusing on supporting as many women as we can to be active during all those phases in their lives whether it's pregnancy, postnatal, right the way up to menopause and just helping as many women to understand their bodies so that they can train smarter and exercise in the right way and know when to push themselves, but also know when to rest and to recover. And, yeah, hopefully, provide some, some guidance and and help to to get women as active as they possibly can be excellent exciting things to look out for in the months ahead there, too.
Sue Anstiss:And finally, I love there's a lovely story of Livia Nielsen, a young, young athlete that was a games maker that carried out your kit at London 2012 and went on then to win silver at the world championships in the same stadium, in the same sport. That's a lovely story of the power of role models, and sport too. So what message would you give to young athletes starting out on that pathway now and their careers in sport?
Jess Ennis-Hill:yeah, I would say that you're in an absolutely fantastic stage of your life and I think you're right. I think role models are so important. We've all had role models. I have Katerina has, you know, various athletes. You know they all have someone that they look up to, that they either like the way they conduct themselves on the track or just are incredibly blown away by their performances. And I think having young women or men to kind of look up to, to really feel inspired, is such a big part of, you know, keeping that success line going through sport.
Jess Ennis-Hill:And Lavia, yeah, what an amazing story. You know I was there in the thick of my career, very nervous, very, very excited, and she was just just starting her career. So for her to have that opportunity to be in the stadium and experience that and it just gives you that adrenaline, that buzz of what it could be. You know you could be there standing there performing, you know, ready to, to compete and, yeah, I'm just blown away by her performances. Anyway, she's done incredible and, yeah, very proud of what she's achieved.
Jess Ennis-Hill:And I think, as many role models that we can create to keep inspiring young people to just to go out there and try a sport or you know, put themselves in an environment that they're not quite used to, and you just don't know what you're going to achieve. You don't know where your talent lies and you don't know what the future holds for you. So, yeah, I'd say to any young individuals that are started out in their career enjoy what you do, be passionate. You know, be committed, and you really don't know where it'll take you. It could take you somewhere incredible.
Sue Anstiss:What an extraordinary woman. Thanks so much to Jess for taking the time out of her very busy life to talk to me about her career. What an utter privilege it was to speak to her. Thanks for all your lovely comments on social media. It's fantastic to hear that people are enjoying the Game Changers. If you could take a moment to leave a review or a rating, that would be brilliant, and you can also find us on social media at Sue Anstis or at the Game Changers. Thanks again to Sport England for their kind support of the series and also to Sam Walker, who's been a brilliant executive producer for the podcast. If you'd like to find out more about any of the 41 incredible women from this and the previous series, head over to our website, fearlesswomencouk. That was the final episode in this series, but I'm so excited to tell you we have another series coming very soon with details next week. Subscribe now so you don't miss it. The game changes fearless women in sport.
