Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill

Presenter0:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs Podcast. Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. And, for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:44

My castaway this week is the Olympic gold medalist Dame Jessica Ennis Hill. One of the most successful and influential women in British sporting history, she's a European, Olympic, and three-time world champion and has won more international medals than any other heptathlete. But it was in 2012 that she went from sporting hero to household name. She was literally the poster girl for the London Olympics and walked into the stadium carrying the weight of the nation's expectations on her shoulders. She emerged with a place in the history books. Her gold medal win was the crowning glory of Super Saturday when Team GB won three athletics gold medals in less than an hour.

Presenter1:28

Her potential was spotted early. When she was 10, her mother enrolled her in a sports club at home in Sheffield as a way of burning off excess energy. Her ability and determination, coupled with the occasional monetary incentive from her granddad, meant that by just 13 she was competing in national events. Her grandad, by the way, had to renegotiate their deal when she became so successful he couldn't keep up with the payments. She says, I want people to remember me not just for specific great performances, but because of the grit and determination it took to get there. Dame Jessica Ennis Hill, welcome to Desert Island Discs. Oh, thank you so much for having me. So Chess, why is it important for you that people remember that grit and determination as well as those moments of glory?

Presenter2:12

It's just always been something that has stuck with me. I want to be remembered for those moments of hard work on the track that no one saw and those years of dedication and sacrifice that you make as a sports person and not for those amazing key moments that you have, but for everything that takes you on that journey to that final point. We're obviously just days away from the Olympic opening ceremony in Tokyo. Will you wish you were there, part of you?

Presenter2:37

It's a tough question. I think I'll feel excited and I'll probably have that slight feeling of, oh, you know, wouldn't it be amazing to be in that position again where you're, you know, in the prime of your life, really fit, ready to compete? But then at the same time, I think, you know, I've had so many incredible years within the sport and I've had such enjoyment and pleasure from it that actually now it's this phase where I can enjoy watching and soak up all the elements that you miss when you're competing.

Presenter3:07

And of course, you know, many people listening will remember London 2012 like it was yesterday. It's hard to believe it was almost 10 years ago. And I went back to that footage and re-watched your gold medal ceremony to remind myself of that incredible moment. Can you begin to describe the feeling of standing on that podium being cheered by 80,000 spectators on home ground? I mean, what was it like?

Presenter3:31

Oh gosh, I mean every time I speak about it, it does, it still gives me goosebumps. It makes me kind of like well up with this like feeling of excitement and a big smile comes on my face instantly. It was just one of those moments that you dream of, you've worked so hard towards and you almost think to yourself, will it actually ever happen? You know, will it come true? Will it happen for me as an athlete in my lifetime? And those two days were the most intense, stressful, competitive, physically and mentally draining days of my life. But to bring them together and to finish on the podium was the most amazing feeling I've, you know, I experienced at that point.

Presenter4:13

So let's start with your first then Jess. What are we going to hear and why have you chosen it?

Presenter4:18

So, my first track is Moment for Life by Nikki Minaj. For me, this is that track that I'd always go to when I was either training and feeling tired and motivation was wavering a little bit. I'd put this song on and it'd just kind of lift me and give me that confidence that I needed to go out there and push hard on a training session. Or it'd be that track that I'd listened to before I'd come off the warm-up track, about to enter the stadium. I'd listen to this song to give me that huge amount of confidence and that self-belief.

Speaker 44:50

I am no longer trying to survive. I believe that life is a prize. But to live doesn't mean you're alive. Don't worry about me and who I fire. I get what I desire, it's my empire. And yes, I call it shots. I am the umpire. I sprinkle holy water upon the vampire. In this very moment, I'm king. In this very moment, I slay Goliath with a sling. This very moment I bring Pushing on everything

Presenter5:15

That I will retire with the ring

Speaker 45:18

And I will with

Presenter5:18

Your Moment for Life by Nicky Minaj. Jessica Ennis Hill, you were born in Sheffield then in nineteen eighty six, the eldest of two children. Your dad, Vinnie, worked as a painter and decorator, and he was born in Jamaica and moved to the UK when he was a young teenager. How much did he tell you when you were growing up about his early years in England?

Presenter5:38

Yeah, he you know, he tells us lots of things as we grew up and had more of an understanding of the world we live in. I remember him telling us about a time when he tried to buy a house with my mum and the homeowner wouldn't sell to my dad because he was black and it was just something that was kind of ha you know, accepted and happened at that time, which is awful to hear that, you know, your dad had to go through something so terrible just because of the colour of his skin.

Presenter6:06

You do describe yourself as a daddy's girl when you were little. What do you remember about the time that you used to spend together? He's just so warm. He's just got such a nice like energy and like presence that, you know, when you're in his company you just feel like really happy and I definitely felt that growing up.

Presenter6:23

Your mother, Alison, was a social worker who helped people with drug and alcohol problems, a job that requires strength of character. Tell me a little bit about her.

Presenter6:31

In a way, we're very different because my mum grew up in a small village outside Sheffield in Derbyshire, and you know, she was a little bit of a rebel. You know, at that time, she dyed her hair pink, which my grandparents loved to tell me. And, you know, she was a little bit, you know, off the charts. And I'm the complete opposite. I'm very like rules straight, you know, do things properly. Now, by your own admission, you were very driven and very focused from an extremely young age. Where do you think those qualities in you come from?

Presenter7:02

My mum has always been very competitive with anything like I do. So whether it's I've cooked a pizza, it's you know, it's got to be the best pizza that you've ever tasted, or oh, I'm feeling a bit ill, I'm the, you know, I'm the illest today, or you know, it's everything's just got a level and I'm the same. So yeah, I definitely think I've inherited that from my mum.

Presenter7:24

And and your dad, you know, he had a bit of sporting history himself, didn't he? So that must have been in the mix too, from him.

Presenter7:31

Well, he says he did. I've not seen any medals.

Presenter7:35

It's time for your second disc today, Jess. What are we going to hear and why are you taking it with you to the island?

Presenter7:41

So my next disc is Street Life by Randy Crawford and this was just a song that was always played in our house growing up. One specific memory of my dad cooking tripe for me, which still to this day makes me want to be sick. But I remember him cooking it up in the kitchen with onions and this song was on. So it really just kind of brings back that memory.

Speaker 48:06

I play the street light

Speaker 48:09

Because there's no place I can go

Speaker 48:12

Street like

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill8:13

Uh

Speaker 48:13

The only light

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill8:15

If I know how it's feel like

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill8:18

And there's a thousand odds

Speaker 48:19

Uh

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill8:19

Uh

Speaker 48:19

Uh

Speaker 48:21

Yeah.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill8:21

Yeah.

Speaker 48:21

Street Life

Speaker 48:22

Until you play your life away

Speaker 48:25

You let the people see just who you wanna be And every night you shine just like a superstar

Presenter8:34

Randy Crawford and Street Life, bringing back memories, Jessica Ennis Hill, of a very happy kitchen and, for better or worse, the smell of tripe and onion.

Presenter8:44

Oh man, that smell.

Presenter8:48

So Jess, you know, sticking with childhood, I know that you didn't particularly enjoy your junior school. Why was that? Why not?

Presenter8:56

I think for me junior school was a challenging time. I just remember being quite a shy girl and you know I was quite small and just really skinny so I had these like really skinny legs, skinny arms and I experienced quite a bit of bullying at junior school and yeah it was hard because you go home and you start to question things and you know you wonder if you should change the way you look and you kind of just want to fit in at that stage. You want to be the same as everyone else. You don't want to stand out and yeah it was it was definitely challenging. I know that you've said that sport came to the rescue for you and enabled you to get your quiet revenge on the bullies I think is how you put it. How did you discover the joy of athletics? How did it actually happen?

Presenter9:42

Completely by accident really. My mum and dad took me and my sister down to Don Valley Stadium, which was the track in Sheffield at the time, and it was a summer camp that they had on, I think, pretty much every year. And it was two weeks of come down to the track and try every event. And during the two weeks at the end of it, you could win a pair of trainers.

Presenter10:05

And for me, that was like pure excitement, you know, being able to win something and come out on top and just be the best. And I think that's what definitely hooked me from the start.

Presenter10:17

It's time to hear your next disc, Jess. What's it going to be and why are you taking it with you to the island? My next disc is Westside by TQ and it reminds me of a time when we used to have the cassette and it was side A and side B and we'd just keep rotating it and playing these two songs and we'd always have it on in the car on the way to school and we'd pick my friend Charlotte up and my dad would just be sick of hearing it over and over and over again. But just brings back such great memories of those relationships that I had with some really key people in my life that are still really close to me now.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill10:55

I was just a young boy living in the hub city East Company Back in the days when Ice Cube and Easy had everybody yelling out boy you can

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill11:07

And my iced tea and the pop

Speaker 411:09

I wing gunshots licking by the hour We're too short, bumped in every super spoke And told us all how to ride for the West Coast

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill11:25

Uh

Presenter11:25

Westside by TQ. Jessica Ennisil, by 1998 you had a coach, Tony Minicello, and the following year you took part in the English Schools Championships. You were 13 at that point and I think competed in the high jump. It must have been a huge deal for you. Oh, I mean that was my absolute goal. That was my Olympics at that time. And a few years after that, you started having to go at combined events. So first the pentathlon, then the heptathlon. Why did you decide to make the switch from a single specialism?

Presenter11:58

Again, it was by accident. I ended up meeting my coach Tony Minicello, and he specialized in coaching combined events, so the heptathlon and the decathlon. And he just said to me, you know, would you like to try this event? And then before I knew it, I was kind of involved in this event that was seven events over two days. It ended with a grueling 800 meters. And at that time, you know, I was just thinking, what have I done? What am I doing? This event is horrible. I don't enjoy it. And I absolutely hated the 800. So it was kind of a hate-love relationship at the start.

Presenter12:34

And you know, we should s say of your stature that I think now you're you're five foot four. Heptathletes typically are very tall. And I did notice looking back at the you know, at the London twenty twelve, the the medal ceremony, you've won gold, so you're on the top position, but you're kind of at high level.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill12:42

Yeah.

Speaker 412:50

High level

Presenter12:52

You're the same.

Presenter12:54

I know, it's so true. Honestly, do you know what? It gave me a huge amount of motivation and drive to go away and make sure I was lifted really heavy in the weights room and much faster and technically sound so that I could, you know, be better than them and beat them.

Presenter13:10

In nineteen ninety eight you joined the Sheffield Athletics Club, juggling your training with A levels and a certain amount of normal teenage life. Did you ever get fed up with it? Like you say, to get into heptathlon you really have to train for everything because there are so many events.

Presenter13:26

I was a teenage girl, you know. I wanted to, you know, see my friends and I wanted to socialize and have fun, but I also wanted to train and I wanted to be competitive and I wanted to win medals. So I did have that kind of real pull in two directions. And I know that you got quite a lot of encouragement from your granddad around that time. Tell me a little bit about how that worked.

Speaker 413:41

But

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill13:46

A little bit better, apparently.

Presenter13:48

He just gave me like a gentle nudge of, right, if you, you know, if you do this competition and you get a PB, then there might be five pounds waiting for you at the finish line. So fiver for a personal best.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill13:55

Wait too.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill13:57

So a five for a personal best.

Presenter13:59

I think it was something like that, yeah. Three quid for a medal, right? Is that right?

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill14:01

Three quid for a medal, right? Is that right?

Presenter14:06

It's time for your next track, Jess. What are we going to hear next, and why?

Presenter14:10

Foolish by Ashanti and this reminds me of my teenage years wanting to see my friends and socialize and have all those experiences as a teenager but also trying to keep focused on you know this amazing athletic opportunity that I had.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill14:27

Same up.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill14:36

Come back to you.

Presenter14:37

Uh See my days of

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill14:38

I'm not sure.

Presenter14:40

I'm hurting my

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill14:41

Uh

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill14:43

Come on.

Presenter14:43

Heart can't think no more, I keep on running back to you. Baby, I don't know why you're treating me so bad.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill14:53

That you love me, no one about

Presenter14:54

Uh

Presenter14:56

A shanty and foolish. So, Jessica Ennis Hill, you kept trying to keep up your social life alongside your training, but there was a crunch point, I think, one particular day after you'd had rather too good a time at one particular house party the night before. Now, we've all been there, I'm sure, but very few of us need to do the high jump the morning after. Talk me through what happened.

Presenter15:20

Oh, I I kind of forgot in this moment. But, um, yeah, I I remember going to a house party with friends and

Presenter15:27

The next morning, I had a competition, and I can't remember what competition was. It was, oh no, it was the national championships. I think it was quite important.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill15:34

Uh

Speaker 215:34

Why is it?

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill15:34

What's it?

Presenter15:36

So the house party the night before, that had been a critical choice that you'd made to go there.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill15:36

So the house party the night before

Presenter15:41

Yeah, yeah, that was a good teenage decision. And my granddad picked me up the next morning and I remember being sick outside the house and and outside his car and then got to the track to compete and just feeling really sorry for myself and um yeah, not wanting to compete and my granddad was like, you know, come on, you knew this was in the diary and then I went over to the high jump and I think I jumped a personal best that day.

Presenter16:09

So I kind of turned around to my coach and my granddad and was like, Well, you know, you can do both. I don't think they were impressed.

Presenter16:16

It was a turning point for you, though.

Presenter16:19

I knew that I had this opportunity, and I could see that I was performing better and better each time I competed and I was improving.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill16:24

Through each time

Presenter16:27

So I just knew I had to see it through, and I wanted to see it through, and I wanted to see where it was going to take me.

Presenter16:34

You won gold in the heptathlon at the European Junior Championships in two thousand five, and by two thousand eight you were competing as a senior athlete, and the next stop was the Beijing Olympics. But a couple of months before you were due to compete, you suffered a stress fracture to your right ankle, and your Olympic dream was over.

Presenter16:53

Oh, it was honestly probably one of the worst moments of my career. I just felt so, so broken, so heartbroken. I thought that, you know, this was going to be my first Olympics. I was so excited, so ready to do it. And then in an instant, it was just taken away from me. And also, like, looming above me was the potential that, you know, I might not ever recover fully from this injury and it might affect my performances moving forwards. And for me, that just, yeah, it was just probably one of the hardest things to deal with at that time. So you had to rebuild yourself physically. And as part of that, you had to change your takeoff foot for the long jump. Now, can you explain to a non-athlete listening to this how big a deal that is? Because it is enormous. It was my right foot, so I take off with my right foot for the high jump and for the long jump. But you can imagine the forces, the load that goes through that individual foot is huge. So once I, you know, I started to recover from that injury and started to do my rehab and build back into full training, my coach then said to me, right, I've got an idea. We're going to change takeoff legs for the long jump and you're going to start jumping off your left leg now. And I was like.

Presenter18:11

What do you mean? I've jumped off this leg like my whole life and

Presenter18:15

For anyone that doesn't know the long jump that well, it's it's a big ass because you train one side of your body in one specific way. And then you are, you know, my coach is asking me to completely change and do everything on the opposite side. So I had to build up strength in a different way that I'd never done on that side. I had to learn all the technique of how you fly through the air in the long jump on the other side. And it was so, so hard because the coordination in itself is a huge challenge. It's kind of how it feels in your brain, right? It's like asking you someone to write with their other hand.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill18:46

That's kind of how it

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill18:49

What's a white

Presenter18:51

Yeah, it was a big, big challenge for me, but I knew that I had to at least give it a go.

Presenter18:57

It's time to hear your next disc, Jess. What are we going to hear?

Presenter19:00

So my next track is More Money, More Problems, Notorious BIG and this just reminds me again of great times growing up where music videos were just you know everything and you kind of switch MTV on and you'd want to see what the latest video was and this was one that just gripped me. I still love this song.

Speaker 419:23

Now, who's hot? Who not? Tell me who got, who seller in the stores? You tell me who flopped, who copped the blue drop, who jewels got blocked, who most people down, do the blue clap. The same old pimp, lace, you know ain't nothing changed but my limp. Can't stop, chop, see my name on the blimp. Guarantee a million sells, bubble, double up. You don't believe in Holland World, double up. We don't play around, it's a bad let down. Didn't know me 91, bet they know me now. I'm the young Holland with the goldie sound. Can't hold he.

Presenter19:52

The notorious BIG, More Money, More Problems. Jessica Ennis Hill, after your recovery, The Guardian's Anna Kessel called you Queen of the Bounce Back. So aside from training, who or what helped you in that recovery and who helped you recover your mindset and your self belief?

Presenter20:10

Without a doubt, my family, you know, my husband now, Andy, he was a huge, huge part of, you know, getting me through that stage. And although I had that huge kind of drive to make sure that wasn't the end of my career, I still, you know, I had those really low moments where you think, oh, you know, why has this happened to me? Is this going to happen again? And you need those great people around you to give you that confidence and have that confidence in you and kind of lift you. Do you think that you have to cultivate, and I'm sure talking to you, it doesn't come naturally at all, but do you think you have to cultivate a kind of selfish streak if you're going to be in elite sport, the best of the best? You know, you have to do this thing and pursue it to the exclusion of all else. Yeah, absolutely. I think without a doubt, you know, whether you're comfortable with that kind of term or not, you have to be a selfish person to be a sports person. You have to make sure that everything is right for you as an individual. It's not just your job, it's your way of life. It's how you sleep, it's your nutrition, it's the people you surround yourself with. And you kind of put everything on hold to make sure that you are, you know, the best you can be. So, yeah, without a doubt, you have to be incredibly driven and incredibly selfish as well. In 2009, you came back and you won at the World Championships. Now, you're not known for your fist-pumping celebrations, though. You prefer a quiet little skip and clapping your hands.

Presenter21:41

My coach and everyone mock me over that. They do my silly little clap and jump around when I celebrate. And they're like, What is that? I don't know. It's the way the way you feel comfortable, isn't it? And I think inside I still am very internal. So inside I'm exploding with excitement and joy, but it doesn't always spill out externally.

Presenter22:05

We've got to take a break for some music. This is disc number six. What are we going to hear? So, my next one is Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack. When I stepped out onto the track at the London 2012 Olympics, it was playing in the stadium, and it's just always kind of stuck in my mind just before I went out to do the 800 meters. And then I remember having my daughter live and going through a long labour, and just as she was about to be born, the radio was on in the hospital, and this song came on, and it just gave me that last little drive to meet her for the first time.

Speaker 222:42

Nothing I'd love before

Speaker 222:46

And how it could be with you

Presenter22:55

I see without a night

Presenter22:58

Yeah.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill22:59

The copper. Then I am okay.

Presenter23:00

Uh

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill23:03

And now I've got to know my

Presenter23:10

Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack.

Presenter23:13

Jessica Ennis Hill, in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics, you became the actual face of the games. So you were on hoardings and billboards all over the country. It was obviously an honour, but brought with it a huge amount of pressure, I'm sure. How did you adjust to that new reality and what was it like seeing yourself up there? Yeah, it was just very surreal because it kind of came out of nowhere. There was no official sit-down where someone said, Would you like to be the face of the Olympics? and this is what it entails.

Presenter23:44

it just kind of evolved really over over that last few months going to the games and it was a huge amount of pressure and everyone knew who I was and they kind of had this huge expectation of me.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill23:46

They have

Presenter23:59

picking up that gold medal. And I think in those moments, I just had to again just remind myself of what I was here to do, you know, keep focused on training and just performing like I'd always performed. Were there times that the pressure got to you?

Presenter24:15

Yeah, there was definitely times where I felt it was quite overwhelming, particularly when training hadn't gone that well. So I remember times where I'd had really bad long jump sessions or, you know, the high jump hadn't been going well. And I'd come home and I'd just close the door and sit with Andy and just say, gosh, like, is this all going to happen? You know, am I going to be able to do it or am I going to let down the nation? You know, is it going to happen in the way that I hope it will? But very quickly after those moments, you pick yourself back up and you think, yeah, you know what, this is an opportunity. This is unique. And were you one for rituals?

Presenter24:52

I'd have a way of doing things before I got onto the track. And then definitely when you know, when I got into my blocks and I was setting up and about to perform, I'd always have like a little ritual that I'd have to do the exact same way to make sure they brought me luck.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill25:04

Uh

Speaker 425:04

To make sure they brought me l

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill25:05

BAAA.

Presenter25:06

Just, um, you know, I used to kind of rub my fingers and put my hair behind my ears in a certain way and rub my hands on like the cheeks of my um shorts and just all these funny little kind of patterns of doing things that just I suppose gave me comfort and confidence that I was just ready to go.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill25:23

Yeah.

Speaker 425:23

Uh

Presenter25:27

And were you anxious about the long jump?

Presenter25:30

Yeah, out of all of the events, it was the one event that I knew could potentially lose me that medal. That new take-off foot, then. Did you know that you'd nailed it when you took your leap? Yeah, when I saw the distance, I think it was 6.48, and I knew that in that moment, I think that was probably one of my biggest celebrations as well. I think I like fist-pumped the crowd and had this like massive roar to the stadium because I knew that that was good enough to put me in a really, really strong position going into the javelin and then going into the 800 meters.

Presenter26:06

Yes, exactly. So, August the 4th, that was Super Saturday. Team GB won six gold medals. That evening, lining up for your final event, the 800 metres, you were already 200 points ahead of your nearest rival, so you really only needed to do a gentle jog around to win gold. But obviously, that just wasn't your style. Why was it so important to you to cross the line first? There was no point in just jogging round and doing it half-heartedly. I wanted to push myself as hard as I could and have a great score and have that finish that I really wanted at the end of two really tough days and the past few years of getting to that point as well.

Presenter26:48

And there is this iconic image of you with your arms stretched out wide, crossing the finish line after those two exhausting days of competition. And you can see in the background, you know, your rivals, the faces are contorted with the effort and the pain of all of it. But you just look completely serene. It's almost like you're flying. It's like a titanic moment, arms out, you know, proud of the gym. Just this serene look on your face. What do you remember about that moment?

Speaker 227:10

Yeah.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill27:11

Just this serene

Presenter27:16

I just remember the last kind of 150 meters before the line. I remember just having.

Presenter27:24

That feeling of the line is nearly there, I can see it, I've I've nearly done it, I've very nearly done it. And I remember just being able to kind of change up a gear, so I just remember kind of injecting a bit of speed and being able to come past some of the girls and start pushing to the front.

Presenter27:40

And in that moment of just the last, you know, metre or so across the line, it was just that pure relief. I had no plan to fling my arms up and do any kind of celebration. I had no idea how I'd react. But in that moment, it just happened. I felt the crowd just kind of lifted me and carried me along the line. And that opening of my arms was that pure relief of almost breathing, a sigh of relief that I'd crossed the line and I'd done it.

Presenter28:11

It's time for disc number seven, Jess. What are we going to hear next?

Presenter28:15

I am a huge Jay-Z fan and I always have been, so I'd have to, have to have a Jay-Z song. So I've gone for public service announcement. And again, this is just another great motivation for me, you know, to put on in my headphones when I'm heading out onto the track, to give me that confidence, that belief to go out there and smash it every time.

Presenter28:39

It's just a public service announcement.

Speaker 228:40

Uh

Speaker 428:41

Uh

Speaker 228:41

Sponsored by Just Blaze and the Good Folks of Rockefeller Records.

Speaker 228:46

Fellow Americans, it is with the utmost pride and sincerity that I present this recording as a living testament and recollection of history in the making during our generation.

Speaker 228:56

Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is O H to the O V. Are you

Presenter29:01

No flakes by the OZ. I guess even back then you could

Presenter29:06

Jay Z and Public Service announcement. So Jessica Ennis Hill, the Olympic high was huge. How long did it take and how did it feel to come down?

Presenter29:17

Yeah, it definitely took a long time to come down. It was just that feeling of I've actually reached that point that I'd dreamt about for so long, and I'd not allowed myself to think about what was going to happen on the other side. But then at the same time, I'm so thankful that everything was very stable and I came back to like my normal life because it kept me, yeah, it just kept me really happy and really grounded and.

Presenter29:40

Yeah, and supported more than anything. There was one big change in the pipeline, though. In twenty fourteen, your first child Reggie was born. And the following year, you won gold at the World Championships in Beijing. Now you've described that particular win as one of the greatest moments of my career. Why was victory especially sweet that time?

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill29:42

BAAP

Presenter29:59

Although London 2012 was incredible in every sense of the word, coming back after having Reggie and being able to get myself back to fitness and becoming a mother for the first time and everything that comes with that, I was just so overwhelmed and so proud that I was able to come back to the world stage that year after and win the World Championships again and then win a silver at the Rio Olympics. It was by far my proudest moment.

Presenter30:27

And after the Rio Olympics, you made the decision to retire from professional athletics. How difficult was it for you to take that step back?

Presenter30:37

In all honesty, it was the right time for me. I felt that in that last year, those last two years after having Reggie, it was hard, it was challenging, and I knew that it was relatively short term. I didn't want to go on for another Olympic cycle after Rio. And in those moments, I just felt that it was right for me. I wasn't retiring because I had to. I wasn't retiring because I had injuries. I was retiring because I felt complete from that sense of the word. I felt that I'd achieved all that I wanted to achieve. Now, Jess, I am about to cast you away to your island, of course. There will be plenty of opportunities there for you to keep fit, as well as the manual labour that you'll have to do to keep yourself warm and dry. There's coconut shock pup, wave hurdles, palm tree high jump.

Presenter31:24

Will you keep training? I love it. On your desert island? Yeah, absolutely. I was thinking I needed some trainers, but I think no, barefoot, some coconuts, some hurdles, I definitely can do something with those.

Presenter31:37

Let's hear one more disc from you, Jessica Ennis Hill. What's it gonna be, and why are you taking it with you to the island?

Presenter31:43

So my final disc is Try a Little Tenderness by Otis Reddin, and this was our wedding song, so this was our first dance at our wedding.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill31:57

Maybe it is real.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill32:03

But it's all so we left

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill32:08

Gotta do is try.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill32:15

Gotta

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill32:18

Oh where you go?

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill32:20

Squeeze up

Presenter32:24

Otis Reading and try a little tenderness. So, Jessica Ennis Hill, I'm going to send you away to your island. I'm giving you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare to take with you. You can also have one more book. What would you like?

Presenter32:38

I have gone for The Wonders of Life by Professor Brian Cox, and I think that this for me would just be perfect to read on the island just thinking about the real origins of life and going really, really deep.

Presenter32:55

You can also have a luxury item. What will that be?

Presenter32:58

My family and the people closest to me are like my everything. So to be able to have a collection of photos of all those people and my kids and being able to, you know, constantly look at them and yeah, that that would just bring me complete joy. So I'd definitely have to have photos. So an enormous photo album.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill33:16

So, yeah.

Presenter33:18

Yes. Perfect, it's yours. And finally, which one track of the eight that you've shared with us today would you save from the waves if you had to? I would probably save Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack because that has a real special part in my in my heart.

Presenter33:36

Dame Jessica Ennis Hill, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Oh, thank you so much.

Presenter33:58

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Jessica. We've cast away many Olympians and Paralympians, including Nicola Adams, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Adair Deputin, Dame Kelly Holmes and Tanny Gray Thompson, Baroness Thompson of Eaglescliff. You can find their episodes in our Desert Island Discs Programme archive and through BBC Sounds. Next time my guest will be the writer and university teacher Robert McFarlane. I do hope you'll join us.

Presenter34:36

What would you do if your house just disappeared?

Speaker 434:40

You need to calm down. People are staring. You're causing a sea here. Dude, I have to go. Yeah.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill34:46

And find my

Speaker 434:46

A new five-part mystery from BBC Radio 4. Ah, Neville, it'd be better if you didn't ask questions about that. Oh, but he seen nothing. It was a whirlwind that took yours. It just clean sucked it up. One man's fight for answers. Uh

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill35:03

There must be a new Bermuda Triangle on Tory Island if houses can just disappear like that.

Presenter35:08

The House That Vanished, available now on BBC Sounds.