Jessica Ennis: 'I'm body confident, I'm comfortable being naked'

She is a 2012 Olympic hopeful with an enviable physique who was called 'fat' by a senior athletics official just last month.

In a new interview, Jessica Ennis hits back at her critics and tells women to embrace their shape.

The World Champion heptathlete and lithe 'poster girl' for London 2012 advises women to accept and love their body the way it is.

“Everyone has their hang-ups, but I see my body as a training tool and I feel good about it. I’m pretty body confident, and I’m comfortable being naked.”

Jessica encourages other women to feel confident about their bodies, saying: “On a scale of one to 10, I’d rate my body confidence as a good seven.”

The heptathlete will compete in the Olympics at the end of this month and said the pressure of being in the public eye can be motivating

"I understand what people expect from me – I think it’s normal for the general public to be putting gold medals around your neck already because they want to see you do well. But I just try to keep things in perspective, stay focused on what I need to do and not get carried away.”

The full interview appears in the August issue of Cosmopolitan, on sale 5 July