Here are five of our favourite moments from the Olympic super-star
After competing in two Olympics and winning medals in both, Jessica Ennis-Hill has announced that she will be hanging up her running shoes for good as she retires this year.
Here we look back at the best moments from Team GB’s golden girl…
When she won the Gold medal at London 2012
It was something of a fairytale for British Athletics when Jessica Ennis won the gold for Women’s Heptathlon on home turf during the 2012 Olympic games.
When she owned the fact that she’s different
Back in 2009 in the earlier days of her professional career, Jessica gave an interview for Trans World in which she talked about the fact that she doesn’t really fit in with the conventional heptathlon look: ‘Most heptatheletes are quite tall, strong and powerful but obviously I’m tiny and a little bit different.’
And despite the fact that she didn’t fit the mould, Jessica went on to defy expectation and win gold at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
When she took a stand against sexual violence
When Sheffield United were contemplating resigning convicted rapist and former striker Ched Evans, Jessica made a stand saying that she would want her name removed from the stand named after her at Bramall Lane (the club’s grounds) if it the club went ahead.
Jessica received rape threats via twitter as a result, but she stood firm saying in a statement: “I believe being a role model to young people is a huge honour and those in positions of influence in communities should respect the role they play in young people’s lives and set a good example. If Evans was to be re-signed by the club it would completely contradict these beliefs.”
When she gave us total #relationshipgoals
Being an Olympic athlete is hard work. But being an Olympic athlete who also manages to have one of the cutest relationships around? Now that is a whole new level of impressive.
‘I thought he was really good looking and out of my league,’ said Jessica in an interview with HELLO! magazine. ‘Even though we were quite young, I knew that I was going to fall in love with him and be spending a long time with him.’ And she was right. Jessica married her childhood sweetheart Andy Hill in 2013 and overnight went from Jessica Ennis to Jessica Ennis-Hill.
When she made the mother of all comebacksAfter having her first child, a son named Reggie, many doubted whether Jessica would be able to return to her previous form after such a long gap on maternity leave. But once again, Jessica defied her doubters but not only qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympic games, but also going on to win Silver in the Women’s Heptathlon. Extraordinary doesn’t quite cover it.
Jessica Ennis-Hill, we salute you.