A biography for Jessica Ennis-Hillhasn’t been written yet.
“I don't know how long my body will allow me to compete, but I can't imagine doing anything else. That day will come, and I just hope there'll be a light shining down a path telling me where to go.”
“I sit down with my coach to watch past performances. But I can be very critical. I don't watch myself very often - it makes me cringe!”
“After my first day of competition I put on compression socks. They help me recover for the next day.”
“I started training again four months after giving birth, and it was strange not to be fully in control - I'm so used to my body performing at a certain level, but it wasn't. I was like, 'Oh, man, can we go back to where we were, please?'”
“I get my competitive edge from my mum. When we're together, we're competitive about little things - it'll be, 'I can bake cakes better than you can.' But she's never been a pushy parent; she's always just supported me.”
“There is a need to be the best you can be. You can't panic; you concentrate. When I run up to the hurdles, I'm very nervous, but I'll tend to think about technical things to keep my mind focused.”
“I'm so impatient. I can't even stand waiting for a cab, and I'm always early for everything. In training, it means I want to run my personal best every session - but it takes time.”
“I think that's one of the first things you'd say if you met me: that I am just nice and smiley. And that's how I might appear when I'm not competing. But I'm totally different when it comes to sport. It's just something that seems to be within me. It's not external or visual. But it's within me.”
“From 15 or 16, I always wanted to be an Olympic champion, but I don't think you ever believe it until it actually happens.”
“I was around 15 when I first wanted to compete in an Olympics. I even remember the first time I got to wear a GB kit as a junior. I've even kept it. It's in my mum's loft somewhere, probably gone mouldy by now.”