Jess Ennis-Hill: Why I Wanted London 2012 To Feel Scary

Jess Ennis-Hill (0:02)

I was the face, you know, as you were flying into Heathrow on the grass coming in to land in, and I definitely felt the pressure. You've been pregnant for nine months, and labor, and all those things. I couldn't push myself as hard as I did before 2012 I was so scared. You learn to embrace that fear and that adrenaline that comes with it. I could translate that into one of the best performances just by controlling the adrenaline and using it.

Jake Humphrey (0:31)

There's a decision that Jess Ennis-Hill made before London 2012 that I have not forgotten. She was the face of the entire Games. Do you remember that? Her picture was on the grass as you flew into Heathrow. It was on the side of every bus, billboards, everywhere you looked, you saw Jess Ennis-Hill. And she chose not to set foot inside the Olympic Stadium until the moment she walked out to compete. And that's because, as she's about to explain, she wanted it to feel new. She wanted it to feel scary. She learned that fear, handled properly, was the thing that actually made her fly. And I really loved this conversation with Jess because it reminded me of how lucky I felt to be one of the BBC presenters for the 2012 Olympics. In fact, I remember being in the studio one day and I looked up and Ricky Gervais and his wife were standing in the corner of the studio watching me presenting. I went over and said, hello, I've not met him before. And I said, what brought you here? And he said, me and my wife were at home watching the coverage. And we thought, let's go down there and see them making the coverage on BBC. It was just the maddest time. And there's no doubt about it that everyone felt on a high across the country. And Jess was kind of central to all of us, just feeling great. And in this conversation, she's going to talk to us about that time, but not just the highs, also some of the lows, the three stress fractures that took Beijing away from her, the British rival who called her a tadpole, and the text her mom sent her before every competition she ever took part in. And then the element that I think is most incredible, coming back after having her son and becoming world champion all over again. What an inspiration this lady is. Olympic champion, three-time world champion, here on High Performance, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill.

Well Jess, welcome to the show.

So what is High Performance in your mind?

Jess Ennis-Hill (2:15)

Oh, I think it's such a complex thing. I think it's very individual to each person, each athlete. I think you have your own journey, your own pathway. But I think for me, High Performance is balance. I think being able to be very aware of you as an individual, but also like your surroundings and how you balance all those elements to get the best performance out of yourself.

Jake Humphrey (2:38)

But of course, there is a moment where there is no balance because the intensity in your world just ratchets up to the very highest level it possibly can. And when I think of that for you, I think of London 2012 I'd love to start there.

You were like the golden girl, the poster person. You were everywhere. What was it like on the inside in the build up to those games for you?

Jess Ennis-Hill (3:01)

It was like nothing I'd ever experienced. So I'd not done an Olympics before. So I was trying to kind of get my head around this whole, what would an Olympics feel like? What would it feel like to be in the Olympic village? What would it feel like to be in the stadium in those moments? And then piled on top of that was this whole new layer of pressure that I'd not really thought about or imagined. I always speak to people and they always say, how did you become the face of the games? And it was something that just happened really organically and really naturally. And before I knew it, there was ad campaigns everywhere and I was the face, as you were flying into Heathrow on the grass coming into landing. And it just kind of spiraled and it felt, I definitely felt the pressure. I felt very aware of what everyone expected me to do. And I knew that if I didn't win the gold medal, that everybody would, you know, unfortunately class that as failure and disappointment because I was only expected to win the gold. I think in those moments, I had to kind of just, yeah, just ground myself with people around me and just remember that actually it was just another championships, even though it was under this umbrella of the Olympics. The Home Olympics and I was competing against the same girls around the world and I had done it so many times before and just trying to remain focused on the job in hand.