Jess Ennis-Hill: Why I Wanted London 2012 To Feel Scary

Mm. I was the face, you know, as you were flying into Heathrow on the grass coming in to landing and I I definitely felt the pressure. You been pregnant for nine months and labour and all those things, I couldn't push myself as hard as I did before twenty twelve. I was so scared. You learn to embrace that fear and that adrenaline that comes with it. I could translate that into one of the best performances just by controlling the adrenaline and using it.

There's a decision that Jess Ennis Hill made before London twenty twelve that I have not forgotten. She was the face of the entire games. Do you remember that? Her picture was on the grass as you flew into Heathrow, it was on the side of every bus, billboards, everywhere you looked, you saw Jess Ennis Hill. And she chose not to set foot. inside the Olympic stadium until the moment she walked out to compete. And that's because, as she's about to explain, she wanted it to feel new. She wanted it to feel scary. She learned that fear handled properly was the thing that actually made her fly. And I really love this conversation with Jess because it reminded me of how lucky I felt to be one of the BBC presenters. for the twenty twelve Olympics. In fact I remember being in the studio one day and I looked up

and Ricky Gervais and his wife were standing in the corner of the studio. watching me presenting, I went over and said, Hello, I'd not met him before and I said, What brought you here? And he said Me and my wife were at home watching the coverage and we thought Let's go down there and see them making the coverage on the BBC. It was just the maddest time and there's no doubt about it that everyone felt on a high across the country and Jess was kind of central to all of us just feeling great. And in this conversation, she's gonna talk to us about that time, but not just the highs

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