Woman of steel
One of the world’s best athletes is posing for a SPIKES photo shoot at a steel-production and engineering plant. It’s a damp, grey Sheffield morning outside. It’s equatorial hot in here.
A crowd of workers catches a glimpse of the pretty girl in the crop top and athletics knickers. They nudge each other in acknowledgment and approval of (the now world champion) heptathlete, Jessica Ennis.
SPIKES sees the opportunity to throw in a cheeky one. Do you think of yourself as being good-looking?
“What kind of question’s that?” she asks before blushing. “I don’t think I’m ugly, but I don’t think I’m anything that special. If people see me as attractive, that’s nice, but I don’t look in the mirror and think, ‘Oh God, yeah.’
“I’m a bit uncomfortable talking about things like that. I always find it a little bit awkward,” she says.
And that’s Jess all over. Modest, polite and, well, just so damn nice. But everyone has their tipping point and SPIKES wants to know what makes the poster girl of British athletics angry.
“I get frustrated in training when things don’t go well,” she says. “I also get grumpy when I’m tired or hungry. But generally I’m quite chilled out.”
The Sheffield born star has been an athlete since she was ten, when her mum signed her up to the UKA Academy’s Aviva Startrack scheme at Don Valley Stadium. For Jess, track and field was an instant hit and quickly became a way of life.
She won a string of national titles as a teenager but it was her European Junior heptathlon victory in 2005 that marked her out as being more than a bit special. Then, just eight months later, at the age of 20, she won bronze at the Commonwealth Games.
It was a rapid ascent. And one that was overseen by coach Tony Minichiello, who has guided her since she was 12. Confident and brash, with a deep voice and a mischievous streak, he is her perfect foil. Well, almost perfect.
“We have our ups and downs,” admits Jess. “He’s a funny guy with a big heart, but he drives me mental.
“He’s always open to new ideas, though, and it never gets to the point where I think I have learned all I can from him. We haven’t had any massive fallouts, but last year I was quite moody and could be difficult to talk to.”
And with good reason. Many had tipped Jess a major medal hope in Beijing but disaster struck in her first heptathlon of 2008 when she broke her ankle. It was an abrupt and painful end to her Olympic dream and the road to recovery was long.
An impatient Jess was bored. But there were some advantages of being on the sidelines – she caught up with family and friends a lot more and watched DVD after DVD of Smallville and Sex and the City. The latter, if you don’t know, is based around the lives and relationships of four beautiful New York women: Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. SPIKES can’t resist asking Jess which of them she thinks she is most like. She is learning fast, though, and calls our bluff, spectacularly.
“Why? Which do you think I’m most like?”
The pressure’s on. “Charlotte,” we blurt.
“Yes,” she says, looking surprised. “I’m traditional – I like everything to be done properly. I’d like to be married first and then have kids. I’m also very clean and tidy.”
Thankfully, the injury didn’t last forever and athletics became her main focus once again. Jess got back into training during the winter and made a spectacular return to the heptathlon in May, scoring a personal best of 6587 in Desenzano del Garda, Italy. She climbed to number one in the world rankings and number three on the all-time British list – behind Denise Lewis and Judy Simpson.
A naturally gifted hurdler and high jumper, it was her improved throws – she went from being a 20/30m thrower to a mid 40m thrower – that really made the difference. She bulked up in the gym and worked tirelessly on her technique.
So at last, with her throwing nailed, this sweet but steely all-rounder is all set to dominate the field this summer inside Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.