One of Ennis's first victories as a senior came in February 2004, when she was eighteen years old. She won the
60 m hurdles at the Northern Senior Indoor Championships in a time of 8.60 seconds. Two weeks earlier she had won three Northern Junior Indoor Championship titles: the
60 m sprint, the 60 m hurdles and the high jump. Also in February Ennis finished third in the 60 m hurdles at the
AAA Indoor Championships in
Sheffield in a time of 8.43 seconds. At the July
2005 AAA Championships Ennis competed in the 100 m hurdles, in which she recorded a personal best time of 13.26 seconds, and the high jump. Ennis's first senior international competition was the
2005 Universiade, held in August in
İzmir, Turkey, where she won a bronze medal in the
heptathlon with a new personal best of 5,910 points, behind winner
Lyudmila Blonska and second-placed
Simeone Oberer.
2006: First senior competition medal Ennis won a
bronze medal for
England at the
2006 Commonwealth Games in
Melbourne,
Australia with a personal best score of 6,269 points, improving her previous best total by more than 350 points. Her
high jump of 1.91 metres would have been enough to take the individual event
gold medal. She achieved personal bests in the high jump, the
200 m and the javelin. Before the competition her aim was merely to score over 6,000 points. The competition was won by
Kelly Sotherton with 6,396 points, with
Kylie Wheeler second on 6,298 points. At the
AAA Championships in July, Ennis competed in the 100 m hurdles, in which she recorded a personal best time of 13.19 seconds in the heats, and the high jump. In July, Ennis guided the Great Britain women's team to a fourth-place finish in the overall competition at the
European Cup Combined Events Super League competition in
Arles,
France with a combined points total of 17,454. Ennis finished fourth in the individual standings with a points total of 6,170. Later in 2006 Ennis improved her personal best with a score of 6,287 points when finishing eighth at the
2006 European Championships in
Gothenburg,
Sweden. Ennis produced personal bests in the
shot put, the 200 m and the javelin. The medallists were
Carolina Klüft (6,740 points),
Karin Ruckstuhl (6,423 points) and
Lilli Schwarzkopf (6,420 points).
2007: World Championships breakthrough In January, Ennis set a new personal best of 8.24 seconds in the 60 m hurdles at the
Loughborough indoor meeting, whilst in February, at the UK Indoor City Challenge Cup in
Sheffield, she set personal bests of 7.43 seconds in the 60 m and 6.19 metres in the long jump. Ennis finished sixth in the
pentathlon at the
European Indoor Championships, in
Birmingham, improving her personal best score by more than 300 points to 4,716. In May she broke the British under-23 heptathlon record, set by
Denise Lewis in 1994, by winning in
Desenzano,
Italy, with a score of 6,388 points. In doing so Ennis equalled the British high jump record of 1.95 metres and recorded personal bests in the 100 metres hurdles (13.12 seconds) and the long jump (6.40 metres). At the
European U-23 Championships in
Debrecen,
Hungary, in July, Ennis won a
bronze medal in the
100 metres hurdles in a time of 13.09 seconds, behind winner
Nevin Yanit and
Christina Vukicevic. Later in July, Ennis beat
Kelly Sotherton into second place in
European Cup Combined Events Super League competition in
Szczecin,
Poland, scoring 6,399 points, a personal best, beating her own British under-23 record. Ennis also led GB women to first place in the team competition. She set two lifetime bests in the process in the 800 metres and the javelin. At the end of July Ennis won the 100 metres hurdles in a time of 13.25 seconds at the Norwich Union World Trials &
British Championships. In August Ennis finished fourth at the
World Championships in
Osaka,
Japan, behind the winner
Carolina Klüft,
Lyudmyla Blonska and
Kelly Sotherton, recording the fastest times in the three track events, including a personal best of 12.97 seconds in the 100 metres hurdles. Ennis finished second overall in the 2007
World Combined Events Challenge, a competition based on points accumulated at any three of the year's thirteen qualifying events, behind the Osaka silver-medallist, Lyudmyla Blonska. The following year Blonska was banned for life for her second career doping offence. In September, Ennis won the inaugural "
European Athletics Rising Star" Award.
2008: Injury setback In January, Ennis set new indoor personal bests of 8.18 seconds in the 60 metres hurdles and 6.33 metres in the long jump at the
Norwich Union International Match at
Kelvin Hall in
Glasgow. At the Norwich Union Trials and UK Championships in
Sheffield in early February, which she entered despite deciding not to compete in the World Indoor Championships in
Valencia, Spain, Ennis finished third in the 60 metres hurdles in a time of 8.20 seconds and won the high jump with 1.92 metres. Ennis withdrew from the
heptathlon competition at the
Hypo-Meeting in
Götzis, Austria after the first day's events citing pain in her right foot. A scan later revealed the injury as stress fractures of the
navicular and a
metatarsal of the right foot. As a consequence she missed
that year's Olympic Games in Beijing and the rest of the 2008 season.
2009: First world title After a twelve-month lay-off due to injury, Ennis returned to competition at the
World Combined Events Challenge in
Desenzano del Garda in May, winning the event with a personal best score of 6,587 points, including an 800 metres personal best, also breaking
Liliana Năstase's 16-year-old meeting record in the process. Ennis's foot injury meant she had to change her take-off leg in the long jump from right to left. At the UK Championships in Birmingham in July Ennis won the high jump and 100 metres hurdles. In August, Ennis won the gold medal at the
2009 World Championships in Berlin with a personal best points total of 6,731, 238 points ahead of silver medallist
Jennifer Oeser of Germany and Poland's
Kamila Chudzik. Ennis also came third in the 2009
BBC Sports Personality of the Year, behind
Formula One world champion
Jenson Button and winner
Ryan Giggs of
Manchester United.
Sheffield City Council held a reception for Ennis in the city's
Peace Gardens, at which she was presented with a
Mulberry designer handbag and a canteen of Sheffield cutlery.
2010: World indoor & European outdoor titles In January 2010, Ennis opened her indoor season with three personal bests at
Loughborough University Open meeting, then set two more personal bests at the Northern Senior Indoor Championships. She was named team captain for the
GB & NI team that won the
Aviva International Match at
Kelvin Hall in
Glasgow. Ennis caused a surprise in winning the
60 metres hurdles in a
British record time of 7.95 seconds, two hundredths of a second ahead of
world indoor champion, and a rival captain (of the
USA),
Lolo Jones. Afterwards Jones, who hadn't lost in over two years in her event, expressed shock at being beaten by a multi-eventer, saying; "I'm looking forward to not letting heptathletes beat me when I'm only working on one thing. That's kind of crazy." At the same meeting Ennis set a new indoor personal best in the high jump of 1.94 metres. In May, Ennis beat
Christine Ohuruogu across the rarely contested
150 metres at the
Great CityGames (0.05 short of the British record time). Later that month, Ennis returned to the
2010 Hypo-Meeting in
Götzis,
Austria, where she injured her ankle in 2008, winning the heptathlon with 6,689 points, with a new shot put personal best of 14.25 metres. At the
Adidas Grand Prix Diamond League meeting in
New York in Ennis set a personal best of 6.51 metres in the long jump. Awarded the GB & NI captaincy again, Ennis won the
heptathlon gold medal at the
2010 European Championships with a personal best and
European Championship Record score of 6,823 points, eight points short of
Denise Lewis's
British and
Commonwealth Records. Her European Championships points total of 6,823 proved to be the
highest heptathlon score of 2010. She recorded a personal best in the javelin of 46.71 metres. As in 2009, Ennis was named "
British Athlete of the Year" by the
BAWA and "Sportswoman of the Year" by the
SJA. She was also 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. Ennis was nominated for a
Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year after she missed the
2008 Olympics with injury, but returned to become world champion in 2009 (lost out to
Belgian tennis player
Kim Clijsters), and for the
World and
European Athlete of the Year awards (both won by
Croatian high jumper
Blanka Vlasic). She was a three-time
European Athlete of the Month winner. Ennis came third for the second year in succession in the
BBC Sports Personality of the Year, behind the winner, jump jockey
Tony McCoy, and darts player
Phil Taylor. She was also awarded a
LittD Honorary Doctorate from the
University of Sheffield for her contribution to sport. Despite ending her season in early August to maximize her recovery time ahead of 2011, Ennis still finished ranked first in the world for heptathlon and indoor pentathlon, and ranked first in Britain for the 60 metres hurdles, 100 metres hurdles, high jump, and long jump.
2011: Second world title In her first competition of 2011 at the Northern Athletics Senior Indoor Championships at the
English Institute of Sport in
Sheffield in mid January Ennis set an indoor personal best of 14.11 metres in the shot put a record she improved by 50 centimetres a week later at an indoor meeting in
Loughborough. Later that month at the annual International in
Glasgow, Ennis won the 60 metres hurdles in a time of 7.97 seconds, again beating
Lolo Jones. At the Indoor UK Trials and Championships in
Sheffield Ennis pulled out of the high jump, and the rest of the meeting, after clearing 1.88 metres, citing "tightness" in her ankle. As a consequence she withdrew from the
2011 European Indoor Championships. The injury was diagnosed as inflammation of the
plantaris muscle. In May Ennis won the heptathlon at the Hypo-Meeting in
Götzis, Austria, for the second consecutive year, recording 6,790 points, 101 more than in 2010 and 33 points below her personal best, beating Russia's
Tatyana Chernova by 251 points. Ennis recorded personal best times in the 200 metres (23.11 seconds) and the 800 metres (2 minutes 8.46 seconds). It was a result that meant Ennis had extended her unbeaten record in multi-events competition to two years. At the UK Trials and Championships at the
Alexander Stadium in Birmingham Ennis competed in five events, equalling her outdoor personal best in the shot put (14.25 metres) and winning the high jump. Later at
Loughborough Ennis recorded a personal best of 12.79 seconds in the 100 metres hurdles. At the 2011
World Athletics Championships in
Daegu, South Korea, Ennis originally finished second to
Tatyana Chernova, with a score of 6,751 points, 129 points behind Chernova and 72 points below her own personal best of 6,823 points. Ennis beat Chernova in five of the seven events, but Chernova scored 251 more points in the javelin (52.95 metres, compared with Ennis's best throw of 39.95 metres). Ennis registered personal bests of 14.67 metres in the shot put and 2 minutes 7.81 seconds in the 800 metres, whilst also equalling her best of 6.51 metres in the long jump. It was Ennis's first defeat in multi-event competition in over two years, but Chernova was later disqualified for failing retrospective drug testing. In 2016, Ennis was upgraded to the Gold Medal by the
Court of Arbitration for Sport after Chernova was stripped of her title. Ennis was appointed
Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the
2011 Birthday Honours for services to athletics. In June 2011 Ennis was inducted into the
Sheffield Legends 'Walk of Fame', alongside other well-known people born in or connected with
Sheffield, who are honoured by plaques set in the pavement outside the Town Hall. The following month a lifesize model of Ennis was shown at
Madame Tussaud's in London. In October Ennis was voted "British Athlete of the Year" for the third consecutive year by the ''British Athletic Writers' Association''.
2012: Olympic champion At the UK Trials and
Indoor Championships at the
English Institute of Sport in early February, Ennis won the high jump, clearing 1.91 metres, and finished sixth in the shot put, with a best throw of 14.09 metres. The following day Ennis won the 60 metres hurdles in an equal personal best time of 7.95 seconds. Ennis recorded two indoor personal bests at the
Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix on 18 February; 7.87 seconds in the 60 metres hurdles and 6.47 metres in the long jump and finished second at the
World Indoor Championships in
Istanbul,
Turkey in March, behind
Nataliya Dobrynska. In finishing second Ennis recorded a personal best and national record of 4,965 points, also recording indoor personal bests in the shot put (14.79 metres) and 800 metres (2:08.09). Her 4,965 points total put her third on the world's all-time list for the indoor pentathlon. Her time of 7.91 seconds would have won her the
60m hurdles silver medal. Ennis broke
Denise Lewis's British heptathlon record at the
Hypo Meeting in
Götzis, Austria, recording a total of 6,906 points, thus becoming the eighth woman to score over 6,900 points. Ennis's performance included personal bests in the 200 metres (22.88 seconds) and javelin (47.11 metres), whilst she equalled her personal best in the long jump (6.51 metres). Ennis beat
Tatyana Chernova by 132 points. In August, Ennis won the
gold medal in the
heptathlon at the
London Olympics with a British and Commonwealth record score of 6,955 points, beating silver medallist
Lilli Schwarzkopf by 306 points and bronze medallist
Tatyana Chernova by a further 21 points. At the end of the first day Ennis had scored 4,158 points, her highest ever first-day total, and was 184 points ahead of her nearest competitor
Austra Skujyte. Ennis' first-day score included two personal bests: 12.54 seconds in the 100 metres hurdles and 22.83 seconds in the 200 metres. Her time in the 100 metres hurdles was a new British record and also the fastest time ever run in a heptathlon. It also equalled
Dawn Harper's winning time for the
women's 100 metres hurdles final in the 2008 Olympics. Ennis achieved another personal best of 47.49 metres in the javelin and won the final event, the 800 metres, in a time of 2:08.65. The following day Ennis announced she would not compete in the 100 metres hurdles individual event. Her time in the heptathlon 100 metres hurdles would have gained her fourth place in the individual final, and her time in the 200 metres would have placed her seventh in the individual event. Ennis, along with other British 2012 Olympic gold medal winners, was featured on a special
Royal Mail commemorative postage stamp and had a post box on the corner of Division Street and Holly Street in Sheffield city centre painted gold in her honour. The post box was vandalised within hours but repaired immediately by Royal Mail. Ennis was honoured in various ways. Sheffield artist/cartoonist
Pete McKee paid tribute to her in a painting showing her driving an open-top sports car. Prints were to be sold for the benefit of the
Sheffield Children's Hospital charity, of which Ennis is a patron. She was featured on the cover of a special Olympic edition of
The Beano as
Ennis the Menace.
Sheffield United announced that the Bramall Lane stand at their
Bramall Lane stadium would be renamed
The Jessica Ennis Stand.
Henderson's Relish produced a special limited edition bottle of the condiment with a gold label instead of the usual orange. The label also made use of the company's slogan in relation to Ennis: "Congratulations Jessica – Strong and Northern". In early September Sheffield City Council voted unanimously to award her the Freedom of the City of Sheffield. Ennis was honoured on a 'Wall of Fame' in
Sheffield Winter Garden bearing the names of sportspeople from the city who competed in the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. In mid August Ennis was welcomed back to Sheffield by an estimated twenty thousand people in Barker's Pool in the city centre. Afterwards a civic reception was held at the City Hall. After winning "European Athlete of the Month" for May, Ennis was selected as EAA "European Female Athlete of the Year" in October, ahead of
Anna Chicherova and
Barbora Spotakova.
Sebastian Coe collected the award on Ennis's behalf as she was unable to attend the ceremony in Malta due to training commitments. In October she was also voted "British Olympic Athlete of the Year" in a public poll run by
UK Athletics. Ennis obtained 48 per cent of the vote, narrowly beating
Mo Farah. In the same month Ennis won "British Athlete of the Year" from the British Athletics Writers' Association for a fourth successive year, "Ultimate Olympian" at ''Cosmopolitan's'' Ultimate Woman of the Year Awards 2012, and also received nominations for IAAF "Female Athlete of the Year" and Sports Journalists' Association "Sportswoman of the Year". She then made the final shortlist of three for
IAAF "Female Athlete of the Year", alongside
Allyson Felix and
Valerie Adams. The award went to Felix. In November Ennis was named the
Sunday Times "Sportswoman of the Year", and along with
Victoria Pendleton and
Ellie Simmonds won "British Ambassadors of the Year" at ''
Harper's Bazaar''s Women of the Year Awards 2012. The same month, Ennis was one of six women nominated for
Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year and was nominated for William Hill "Sportswoman of the Year". Also in November Ennis's long-time coach Toni Minichiello was named "Coach of the Year" by Sports Coach UK, a body that supports sports training across the country. In December Ennis was chosen as the Jaguar Academy of Sports "Most Inspirational Sportswoman of the Year" and was voted "Sportswoman of the Year" by the Sports Journalists' Association. , London Ennis was voted into the top three for the
BBC Sports Personality of the Year for the third time, as runner-up to
Bradley Wiggins and ahead of
Andy Murray. Ennis was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the
2013 New Year Honours for services to athletics. Ennis was named as the World Sportswoman of the year at the Laureus World Sport Awards. Ennis's autobiography,
Unbelievable – From My Childhood Dreams to Winning Olympic Gold, was published on 8 November by
Hodder and Stoughton, and the same day she was guest of honour at the Christmas lights switch-on at a charity event at
Meadowhall Shopping Centre, which raised over £8,000 for her nominated charity, the
Sheffield Children's Hospital Make It Better appeal. In the book Ennis revealed that in 2010
UK Athletics head coach
Charles Van Commenee put pressure on her and Toni Minichiello to move their training base to London, but both "believed in what we were doing in Sheffield and ... stayed strong". In early November Toni Minichiello announced that Ennis would compete in the heptathlon at the 2014
Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, a competition Ennis has not previously won, having taken the bronze medal in 2006 and not entering in 2010. The same month Ennis reiterated her desire to switch to the 100 metres hurdles in the long term, but added that it would not be before the
World Championships in Moscow in 2013, where she would attempt to regain the heptathlon world title. Ennis finished the year with the world leading points total for the heptathlon, and the Commonwealth's leading points total for the pentathlon. She also 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.
2013–14: Injury struggles and pregnancy layoff The year began with uncertainty over the future of Ennis's coach Toni Minichiello and her primary training facility, the
Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield. Minichiello's contract as the
UK Athletics national coach for combined events expired at the end of 2012 and was not renewed as he was not prepared to move to Loughborough as part of the organisation's high-performance programme, whilst Sheffield City Council considered closing the Don Valley Stadium due to budget cuts. On 1 March Sheffield Council voted to close the stadium. Ennis decided not to compete in the 2013 indoor season to concentrate on the outdoor World Championships in Moscow. At a ceremony at Sheffield Town Hall at the end of March, Ennis received a scroll from John Campbell, the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, recognising her award of the Freedom of the City. Ennis made her season debut at an invitation meeting at Leeds Metropolitan University on 20 April. She won the javelin competition with a best throw of 44.56 metres. An ankle injury prevented her from competing in June, and she pulled out of meetings in Edinburgh, Oslo and Tallinn. She also missed the British Championships in mid July. Ennis-Hill returned to action in a meeting at Loughborough where she recorded a javelin personal best of 48.33 metres. She also competed in the long jump, reverting to the right-foot take off she used before her 2008 injury. Afterwards she still complained of pain in her ankle. At the London Anniversary Games she finished fourth in the 100 metres hurdles in 13.08 seconds and eighth in the long jump, recording 6.16 metres but four days later decided not to compete at the Moscow World Championships as she had not fully recovered from injury. 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. She returned to full-time training in October.
2015: Comeback and third world title Ennis-Hill made her comeback in the
Great City Games in Manchester in May, finishing third in the 100 metres hurdles. She then finished fourth in her first heptathlon since the London Olympics at the Hypo-Meeting in
Götzis, Austria, comfortably achieving the qualifying standard for the 2016
Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. The competition was won by Canada's
Brianne Theisen-Eaton, who set a national record. After competing in three events at the Anniversary Games at the London Olympic Stadium, Ennis-Hill declared herself fit for the Beijing World Athletics Championships, where she won the heptathlon with a total of 6,669 points, ahead of Theisen-Eaton and Latvia's
Laura Ikauniece-Admidina. In July it was announced that a re-test of a blood sample given in 2009 by
Tatyana Chernova showed the presence of a prohibited anabolic steroid. The Russian anti-doping agency annulled two years' worth of Chernova's results, but the period of annulment ended 16 days before the 2011 Daegu World Championships, where she won the gold medal. Silver medallist Ennis-Hill appealed to the
IAAF that Chernova's results annulment should extend to that competition. In turn the
IAAF similarly appealed to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport. Ennis-Hill was retrospectively awarded the gold in 2013. In September Ennis-Hill was nominated for the
European Athlete of the Year award, which was won by
Dutch sprinter
Dafne Schippers. In November Ennis-Hill won the
Sunday Times and Sky Sports Sportswoman of the Year award for a second time, was voted
BAWA Athlete of the Year for a record equalling fifth time (tied with
Paula Radcliffe), and was nominated for
IAAF Athlete of the Year. In December Ennis-Hill was selected as
SJA Sportswoman of the Year for a joint-record fourth time (again tied with
Radcliffe), and was voted the best British and International Female Athlete in 2015 by the
Athletics Weekly readers. She also finished third in the 2015
BBC Sports Personality of the Year, behind Rugby League player
Kevin Sinfield and winner
Andy Murray. It was the fourth time she had been voted in the top three of the award.
2016: Olympic silver and retirement An achilles tendon injury kept Ennis-Hill out of the 2016 indoor season. She returned to action at the end of May but did not compete in the Hypo-Meeting in
Götzis, Austria. Announcing she would miss the pre-Olympics
Team GB holding camp in
Belo Horizonte because of fears about the
Zika virus but would compete at the
Rio Olympics, Ennis-Hill won her first heptathlon of the season at the Combined Events Challenge in
Ratingen, Germany, with 6,733 points, the second-best score of the year. She also recorded a personal best of 6.63 metres in the long jump. In August, Ennis-Hill was defending her Olympic title at the
2016 Olympic Games in
Rio de Janeiro, but was beaten into the silver medal position by
Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium, who recorded five personal bests in the seven events. Ennis-Hill was voted as Great Britain's favourite sporting hero in a poll conducted by
Sport Relief in January. She was included on the list for the entertainment section of
Forbes Magazines "30 under 30" list for Europe in January. In February, Ennis-Hill was voted Sportswoman of the Year at the British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards. She was nominated for a
Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year for a second time in March. On 13 October 2016, Ennis-Hill announced her retirement from athletics. == Post-retirement ==