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Desert Island Discs

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, athlete

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 β€’ 13.7K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 18 July 2021

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is an Olympic gold medallist and three-time world champion heptathlete, and is one of the most successful women in British sporting history. She was the face of Team GB during the 2012 London Olympics, and her image adorned billboards and hoardings across the country in the run up to the Games. Born in Sheffield, Jessica discovered sport as a youngster after attending a local athletics camp during the school holidays. By the time she was 13 she was working with a coach and had joined the City of Sheffield Athletics Club. In 2006 she won bronze at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games but in 2008 she suffered an injury to her right foot which dashed her hopes of competing in the Beijing Olympics. She spent the next year working her way back to fitness and by the 2012 London Olympics she was at the peak of her powers. When she crossed the finish line on 4 August – known as Super Saturday when Team GB won three athletics gold medals in less than an hour – she took the gold medal with a British and Commonwealth record score which remained unbeaten for seven years. Just 15 months after the birth of her first child, Jessica won the heptathlon world title in Beijing – her third World Championship gold medal in a row. She won silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016. In October of that year, at the age of 30, she retired from competitive athletics. DISC ONE: Moment 4 Life by Nicki Minaj DISC TWO: Street Life by Randy Crawford DISC THREE: Westside by TQ DISC FOUR: Foolish by Ashanti DISC FIVE: Mo Money Mo Problems by The Notorious BIG Featuring Mase And Puff Daddy DISC SIX: Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack DISC SEVEN: Public Service Announcement by Jay-Z DISC EIGHT: Try a Little Tenderness by Otis Redding BOOK CHOICE: The Wonders of Life by Professor Brian Cox LUXURY ITEM: A photo album CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Paula McGinley

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.9

Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.

0:08.7

Every week I ask my guests to choose the 8 tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them

0:14.0

if they were cast away to a desert island.

0:16.5

And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.

0:21.2

I hope you enjoy listening.

0:44.8

My castaway this week is the Olympic gold medalist, Dame Jessica Ennis Hill,

0:49.5

one of the most successful and influential women in British sporting history.

0:54.0

She's a European, Olympic and three-telling world champion and has won more international medals

1:00.3

than any other heptathlete.

1:02.4

But it was in 2012 that she went from sporting hero to household name.

1:06.8

She was literally the poster girl for the London Olympics and walked into the stadium,

1:11.8

carrying the weight of the nation's expectations on her shoulders.

1:15.6

She emerged with a place in the history books.

1:18.8

Her gold medal win was the crowning glory of Super Saturday,

1:22.6

when Team GB won three athletics gold medals in less than an hour.

1:27.9

Her potential was spotted early.

1:29.9

When she was 10, her mother enrolled her in a sports club at home in Sheffield

1:33.9

as a way of burning off excess energy.

1:36.2

Her ability and determination coupled with the occasional monetary incentive from her

1:41.0

granddad meant that by just 13 she was competing in national events.

1:45.7

Her granddad, by the way, had to renegotiate their deal

...

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