Jessica Ennis reveals she was bullied at school
The gold medal-winning heptathlete has opened up in her autobiography
The gold medal-winning heptathlete has opened up in her autobiography
Jessica Ennis is an inspiration - a powerful, driven, beautiful woman - but the Olympic athlete has revealed that she was a victim of bullying at school.
Talking about her upcoming autobiography, Unbelievable, Ennis told the Guardian that her small stature and sporting ambitions caused her to be the target of bullies in her hometown of Sheffield.
She said: 'I was just different. I was such a scraggy little thing. And there were these two big girls who just used to pick on me.’
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Drawing on the harder times she experiences, Jessica, 26, also revealed that her mum, even now, sends her a pre-competition text, which reads: ‘Don't let those big girls push you around.'
The gold medallist, who did us proud in the heptathlon during London 2012, also admitted that she's not quite as sweet as she comes across in interviews, saying that she is really very determined and hard.
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‘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.
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She added: 'You have to be totally up for it and motivated otherwise you just wouldn't win. But it's not something that a lot of people see. Apart from maybe my family.’
What an inspiration.
Watch some of Jessica Ennis's best moments below.