Mariah Bell is oldest US women’s Olympic figure skater in 94 years. 'I've gone through a lot'

Part of USA TODAY's 10 to watch series profiling some of America's top athletes competing at the Beijing Olympics

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The figure skater was talking about something women skaters almost never talk about. She was talking about longevity.

Why would anyone speak of such a thing in women’s figure skating? The little girls come along, they jump their hearts out and win their medals and then they leave, sometimes before they get their driver’s licenses, often before they turn 20.

Not this skater, though. Not Mariah Bell. She just won her first U.S. women’s figure skating title on her ninth try at 25. By doing so, she became the oldest women’s national champion in 95 years and the oldest U.S. women’s Olympic figure skater in 94 years.

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News flash: there actually is a woman – someone born in a previous century – in women’s figure skating.

“Right now it seems the culture is these young girls doing these incredible elements (quadruple jumps and the like),” Bell said after winning her national title and making the 2022 U.S. Olympic team in early January. “The culture in skating is so young, at 15, 16, you’re pretty much almost on your way out in a lot of ways, especially in Russia. We see these incredible young Russian girls, and unfortunately there it’s hard to be able to continue at a high level at an older age.”

The United States has had its share of teenage phenoms as well. Tara Lipinski was 15 when she won the Olympic gold medal in 1998. Michelle Kwan was 17 when she won the silver that year. Sarah Hughes was 16 when she won the 2002 Olympic gold medal. Alysa Liu, one of Bell’s teammates on Team USA, already is a two-time U.S. champion. She’s just 16.

To be sure, women in their 20s exist in figure skating. Bell’s Olympic teammate Karen Chen is 22. Ashley Wagner also was 22 when she won a team bronze medal at the 2014 Sochi Games.

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But no U.S. women’s national champion or Olympian has been older than Bell since Beatrix Loughran, who won the 1927 national title at 26 and won the 1928 Olympic bronze medal at 27. American figure skater Theresa Weld Blanchard also made that 1928 Olympic team at 34.

“I’ve gone through a lot in skating and out of skating that has really given me perspective,” Bell said in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. “I’ve gained responsibility and it’s made me a better person and that’s why I think I’m a better athlete. I’m ready now to step into that spot. I’ve been close before but it hasn’t happened. Maybe I even skated well, maybe even better than I did (at the 2022 nationals), but the timing wasn’t right. The universe was like, it’s not quite right yet.

“But now, I feel I’m so confident in who I am and what I mean and the skater that I am. I’m ready to be in that position. … I have all this experience. I wasn’t ready to be an Olympian or win nationals or to do any of those things when I was younger. That’s just my story. I happen to be ready when I was 25 and so I’m really excited to see what happens next.”

Bell, Chen and Liu are not expected to win a medal in the women’s competition in Beijing, although the United States should win a medal in the team event. Nonetheless, Bell stands as a beacon for how to survive in a sport that often places young women on the discard pile before you’ve even heard their names.

Bell’s earliest memories of skating center around Lipinski. Her childhood coach, Megan Faulkner, had been Lipinski’s coach on her rise through the ranks.  

“She was always talking about Tara, and I’m like, who’s this Tara?”

Once Bell found videos of Lipinski’s performances online, she was hooked.

“It was all I wanted to watch,” Bell said. “I’d watch it over and over. I remember thinking, that’s what I want to do, I would love to go to the Olympics, that’s so cool.”

The Bells are a skating family. Mariah’s older sister Morgan also skated at nationals, then moved on to star in Disney on Ice.

“My parents gave up a lot for my sister and I to chase our dreams,” Bell said. “It wasn’t ever to win. We weren’t forced into anything, and that cultivated such a positive relationship, my sister and I both with our skating.

“My mom always said what she wanted for my sister and I, at end of this was not for us to be national champions or Olympians or whatever, that would be amazing if that happened, but what she cared about was the people we became, what our work ethic was, were we kind, were we positive influences in society? That was always the biggest thing for my parents.”

Mariah’s mother drove the point home one memorable day at practice.

“I was good when I was novice but I had a real bad attitude,” Bell said. “I would get really mad on the ice and stomp.”

Her mother witnessed this, came down and told her to get off the ice.

“I said, ‘No, I’m not getting off the ice.’”

That wasn’t the right answer.

“I’ve never seen her move faster,” Bell remembered. “In two seconds she was on the ice and I was being dragged off the ice. She said, ‘I don’t care what you do or who you are as a skater, this is not who you are, you need to be a respectful person and have good character.’”

Bell has appreciated that moment ever since.

“They cared about my sister and I as people before athletes. In my experience, from parents, that’s true love, and it really sets you up to feel like what you do as an athlete doesn’t determine who you are as a person.”

Bell has been lurking near the top at U.S. nationals for a handful of years. She finished third at the 2017 nationals, then fell to fifth during the 2018 Olympic year, then bounced back to third in 2019 and second in 2020. But during the 2021 pandemic nationals, she dropped back to fifth again.

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“It’s been a long journey to get to this point,” Bell said. “It just means so much to me. I still remember moving to California and living there with my boyfriend and both training with Rafael (Arutunian, her current coach). Fast forward, everything’s going great, I get engaged, I’m engaged in Greensboro when I get second (at the 2020 nationals) and I feel like I’m on top of the world and everything is amazing.”

But skating being skating, things changed.

“Then this last year was kind of tough, I didn’t have a great skate at nationals (in 2021), and then in the summer, I was kind of hit with the end of this relationship I did not see coming, I felt lost and I was broken for a little bit.”

Adam Rippon, the popular 2018 U.S. Olympic team bronze medalist, once was her training partner and now stands by the boards as one of her coaches.

“For her, it was a really challenging year that she really didn’t share with a lot of people,” he said. “She was really disappointed after nationals, and then with her breakup with her fiancé, it was really devastating. She felt totally lost but she was really smart, she got the pieces back together. She focused on herself. She wasn’t going to let that be the dictator of how the season was going to go. And she just pulled it together.”

Said Bell: “I decided that this was something that I completely was capable of and I wasn’t going to let this dream slip away. I’m so grateful for all the highs and all the lows. I wouldn’t change a thing, to be through all that and to be 25 and to be on the Olympic team is really my dream come true.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2022 Olympics figure skating star Mariah Bell makes history at age 25