In pictures: The highs and lows of Jess Ennis-Hill’s glorious career
Jess Ennis-Hill enjoyed a decade at the highest level in which she became one of Britain’s most successful track and field athletes of all time. Here is how a stellar track and field career unfolded.
Read more: Jess Ennis-Hill retires and says: "I know the time is right"
2006-2008: Showing promise
Ennis won her first international medal in 2006: heptathlon bronze at the Commonwealth Games (Source: Getty)
A 20-year-old Ennis won her first senior international medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, where she claimed bronze in the heptathlon, the event with which she would become synonymous.
She served further notice of her promise on her World Championship debut the following year, finishing fourth in Osaka, but a stress fracture in her foot would see her miss the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
2009-2011: The unbeaten years
She won the first of two World Championship golds in Berlin in 2009 (Source: Getty)
Ennis delivered on her potential at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, taking gold having led the heptathlon from start to finish and beginning an era of supremacy.
She would go unbeaten in multi-events for two years, taking in gold in the pentathlon at the 2010 World Indoor Championships in Doha and heptathlon gold the same year at the European Championships in Barcelona.
2011: World Championship controversy
Chernova prevented Ennis form defending her world title in 2011. She was later issued with a doping ban but kept this medal (Source: Getty)
That run was halted in contentious fashion at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, where she was beaten into second place by Tatyana Chernova despite out-performing her in five of the seven elements.
The Russian would later be found guilty of doping and have two years of results wiped but the period affected ended two weeks before the Worlds, meaning she controversially kept the gold. Ennis and British Athletics appealed that decision and the legal arguments remain unresolved.
2012: Crowing success
Ennis completing her heptathlon victory provided one of the defining images of London 2012 (Source: Getty)
Ennis was second at the World Indoor Championships in early 2012, part of her preparations for a home Olympics of which she had already been billed as one of the faces.
That summer she delivered her crowning success, setting a new British and Commonwealth heptathlon record as she won an emotional gold in London in her first ever Games.
Her victory came on a spectacular evening for Team GB, in which Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford also won gold in the Olympic Stadium. The image of her crossing the line is one of the most enduring of the Games.
2013-2016: A comeback – and the final act
Ennis capped a sensational comeback by winning a second World Championship title in Beijing (Source: Getty)
She would barely compete for the next three years owing to injuries and the onset of parenthood, but Jess – now Ennis-Hill, having married in 2013 – returned at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, where she confounded her doubters by winning gold for a second time.
It was hailed as a triumph equal to her 2012 feat, although another Olympic title proved marginally beyond her as Belgian rising star Nafi Thiam pipped her to gold in Rio.
Ennis won silver at the Rio 2016 Olympics in what would be her last competition (Source: Getty)