Cathy Freeman Advises Jessica Ennis on Home Expectation at the Olympics.

Cathy Freeman has advised Jessica Ennis to stay true to her origins, to not contemplate defeat and to ignore the views of all but her support team as the countdown to the London Olympics begins in earnest.

World outdoors heptathlon champion Ennis has revealed that she plans to seek out Freeman, the 2000 Olympics 400 metres gold medallist, to find out how the sporting champion of Australia’s indigenous people coped with the eyes of the nation fixed upon her at the Sydney Games.

Freeman not only lit the Olympic flame inside the Olympic stadium before a global audience, but then appeared at the start line of the 400 metres final in a full body suit before taking the crown in emphatic style. Britain’s Katherine Merry took bronze.

Ten years on and Ennis, who clinched the Gold medal in the pentathlon at yesterday’s World Indoor championships in Doha, Qatar, knows she will carry the full weight of expectation on her slender shoulders as she prepares for the London Olympics as the athlete most likely to win gold.

“I’m a big fan of Jessica and what I’ll tell her if she gets round to talking to me is that if she’s doing it in London for the same reason she did it in the first place then she can’t go wrong,” Freeman explained, speaking at the Laureus World Sports Awards last week in Abu Dhabi.���

“It has to be a continuation of an emotion that comes straight from the heart. It’s the wind in your wings. What Jess should know is that when you’re in the middle of it all you don’t share the same perspective as the public, the media or her sport. If she does then that’s where the cracks will appear in her fortress of well-being that she has psychologically established around herself. She’ll need to secure and protect it.

“What I know of Jess reminds me a little of myself. I’ve always felt I’m a grass roots person, partly because of my humble beginnings. I’ve carried that innocence and it’s helped me to cope. That way you don’t see all the distractions and nervousness.

“It would be a very dangerous thing for Jess if she listened or took notice of what others are saying in the build up to the 2012 Olympics. It could disturb the foundations of that fortress of well-being I always refer to. She needs to rely more heavily on her support team – her coach, her family, her friends, the doctor, the physio.”

It is still early days for Ennis in terms of dominating the multi-events discipline in track and field, but the 37-year-old Freeman advocates total belief and an aversion to defeat as compelling tools towards success.

“I dreamt of becoming the world’s greatest athlete as a ten-year-old,” she admitted. “As I moved up the ranks and became more confident my competitive spirit got stronger and stronger. In time I developed a hatred of losing and this, too, grew and grew.

“I had a driver coupled with a pure love of my sport and a happiness in what I was doing. When it’s all about that it makes it easier. Jess will need to draw on a similar kind of positivity for the energy she’ll need not only to overcome the pressure of an expectant home nation, but to also go on and win the Olympic gold medal for herself.
“If she remains driven by pure intention then the energy drawn is always positive. I get the feeling that’s the case with her right now, as it is for all athletes when they first get to the top. Not all keep it that way and that’s when the problems set in. If Jess can stick to what has worked for her in the past then she’ll be on track to add the Olympic gold to her world outdoors gold.”��

Cathy Freeman is a member of the Laureus World Sport Academy.

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