Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, athlete

Jessica Ennis-Hill (0:01)

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts.

Lauren Laverne (0:05)

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.

My castaway this week is the Olympic gold medallist, 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.

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 grandad, 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.

Jessica Ennis-Hill (2:04)

Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Lauren Laverne (2:06)

So, Jess, why is it important for you that people remember that grit and determination as well as those moments of glory?

Jessica Ennis-Hill (2:12)

It's just always been something that has stuck with me. You know, I want to be remembered for those moments of hard work on the track that no one saw and, you know, those years of dedication and sacrifice that you make as a sports person. And not for those, you know, amazing key moments that you have, but for everything that takes you on that journey to that final point.

Lauren Laverne (2:30)

We're obviously just days away from the Olympic opening ceremony in Tokyo. Will you wish you were there, part of you?

Jessica Ennis-Hill (2:38)

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.

Lauren Laverne (3:07)

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 rewatched 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?

Jessica Ennis-Hill (3:31)

Oh, gosh, I mean, every time I speak about it, it does, it still gives me goose bumps. It makes me kind of like well up with this 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? 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 experienced to that point.

Lauren Laverne (4:13)

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

Jessica Ennis-Hill (4:18)

So my first track is Moment 4 Life by Nicki 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 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 listen to before I'd come off the warmup track about to enter the stadium. I'd listen to this song to give me that huge amount of confidence and that self-belief.