37 Facts About Jessica Ennis-Hill

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is a British retired athlete who specialised in the heptathlon and 100 metres hurdles.

Since retiring from athletic competition, Ennis-Hill has appeared as an athletics commentator and studio pundit for the BBC.

Jessica Ennis-Hill has worked as an entrepreneur and created several fitness apps specialising in women's health and training.

Jessica Ennis-Hill's father is a Jamaican self-employed painter and decorator, who was born in Linstead in the parish of St Catherine and migrated to Sheffield, England at 13 years old.

Jessica Ennis-Hill's English mother is a social worker from Derbyshire.

Jessica Ennis-Hill's father did some sprinting at school, whilst her mother favoured the high jump.

Jessica Ennis-Hill won her first athletics prize, a pair of trainers.

Jessica Ennis-Hill took to the sport immediately and joined the City of Sheffield and Dearne Athletic Club the following year, at the age of 11.

Jessica Ennis-Hill received specialist javelin coaching from World Championships bronze medallist and European Championships silver medallist Mick Hill.

Jessica Ennis-Hill was the first Briton to win the heptathlon title.

Jessica Ennis-Hill was named "Outstanding Female Athlete" at the Commonwealth Sports Awards, despite not competing in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, won "The Best British Athletic Performance of 2010" at the UK Athletics Awards, and was awarded the Dame Marea Hartman Award, given annually to the outstanding English female athlete of the year.

Jessica Ennis-Hill was a three-time European Athlete of the Month winner.

Jessica Ennis-Hill was awarded a LittD Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sheffield for her contribution to sport.

Jessica Ennis-Hill was featured on the cover of a special Olympic edition of The Beano as Ennis the Menace.

Jessica Ennis-Hill then made the final shortlist of three for IAAF "Female Athlete of the Year", alongside Allyson Felix and Valerie Adams.

Jessica Ennis-Hill recorded the fastest European times for the 60 metres hurdles and the 100 metres hurdles, and the leading height in Britain for the high jump.

Jessica Ennis-Hill competed in the long jump, reverting to the right-foot take off she used before her 2008 injury.

Jessica Ennis-Hill's pregnancy caused her to miss the 2014 season, but she was still voted 'the most inspirational figure by under-25-year olds in the UK' in a poll conducted by the organisation UK Youth for its Starbucks Youth Action programme.

Jessica Ennis-Hill then finished fourth in her first heptathlon since the London Olympics at the Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis, Austria, comfortably achieving the qualifying standard for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

Silver medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill appealed to the IAAF that Chernova's results annulment should extend to that competition.

In December Jessica Ennis-Hill was selected as SJA Sportswoman of the Year for a joint-record fourth time, and was voted the best British and International Female Athlete in 2015 by the Athletics Weekly readers.

Jessica Ennis-Hill finished third in the 2015 BBC Sports Personality of the Year, behind Rugby League player Kevin Sinfield and winner Andy Murray.

On 13 October 2016, Jessica Ennis-Hill announced her retirement from athletics.

Jessica Ennis-Hill was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to athletics.

Jessica Ennis-Hill was a guest analyst on the BBC's coverage for the first three days of the event.

Later that year, Jessica Ennis-Hill became the second woman to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jessica Ennis-Hill co-wrote the seven-book series called Eve's Magic Bracelet with children's author Elen Caldecott.

In 2019 Jessica Ennis-Hill launched Jennis, her own app-based training programme, with co-founder and agent Jane Cowmeadow.

Jessica Ennis-Hill married Andy Hill, a construction site manager, in Derbyshire in May 2013, and said she would be known as Jessica Ennis-Hill.

Jessica Ennis-Hill gave birth to her son Reggie in July 2014.

On 16 March 2017, Jessica Ennis-Hill announced she was pregnant for a second time.

Jessica Ennis-Hill gave birth to her daughter Olivia on 23 September 2017.

Jessica Ennis-Hill is a fan of Sheffield United, which named one stand of the Bramall Lane stadium in her honour in 2012.

Jessica Ennis-Hill is an ambassador for the Jaguar Academy of Sport and a patron of both the Sheffield Children's Hospital charity and Barrie Wells' sports foundation.

Jessica Ennis-Hill is a columnist for The Times newspaper and advertises Aviva, Powerade, BP, Adidas, Omega watches, Olay Essentials and Santander UK.

On 18 July 2021, Jessica Ennis-Hill guested on the broadcast of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and paid tribute to her painter decorator Jamaican father and counsellor English mother for their unwavering career support.

Jessica Ennis-Hill revealed that her grandfather would offer her cash incentives as a reward for her initial successes in her early track competitions.