In an exclusive interview with AW, the Olympic medalist and British 1500m record holder talks about the trip to Germany that did it all.
Georgia Bell loves to run and did so no less than 27 times in 2024, a year in which she smashed her personal best, won Olympic and European medals and became the British 1500m record holder.
However, it is only his second outing of the year, with the 30-year-old marking the most important of all, in a closed game against Sparkasse Dortmund on January 20.
In an exclusive interview in the October issue of AW, Bell talks about the extraordinary progress she has made since returning to athletics and reuniting with the coaching team of Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows late last year.
He has now quit his job in cyber security to focus full time on his sporting career and is still having the year of his life on the track, but he can trace the momentum building to success before that day in Germany.
“Running the British record and getting an Olympic medal are obviously the big ticket moments,” he says of running 3:52.61 in Paris. “But the race for me, which I think was the most important and which I’m most proud of, was the first race in Dortmund in January.
Jessica Hull, Faith Kipyego and Georgia Bell (Getty)
“It was a closed bronze level meet where I got a spot to cancel, and I got that spot by emailing the meet director.
“At this point, I had no agent, no brand working with me, and that was the tone of the whole season. The goal going in was to get 4:06 in an attempt to qualify at the World Indoors. I went in so determined, on a mission to run that time, and ran 4:03. I crushed what we expected and put in “we don’t really know where I am, so there’s no point in putting limits on what I can aim for.”
“I continued to do that at every race throughout the year, and that set off a series of events that got me signed, got an agent, and ultimately changed my life completely.”
Bell, a former English schools champion over 800 metres, retired from the sport after suffering an injury while at university in California.
nia, which saw his body broken down by the high running demands of the NCAA environment.
However, he says: “To be honest, I don’t have any resentment or anger towards that period. It was obviously sad in many ways, just not achieving the your potential and I think it would be amazing to do really well in the NCAA and then go on to a professional career. But I honestly think people will go on different journeys, and there’s no one set way for anyone to get there.
“After all, I’m a professional athlete now, I have an Olympic medal and I hope to get more. I have found myself in the same place, although it has taken a different route.
“There are many advantages to going to the CCA. Right now I see people on social media that I know who have just gone and started their journey and it’s a little bit like me. “You’re going to have so much fun!”
“I remember those preseason training camps at Lake Tahoe and traveling to big races with your team. I still think there is tremendous value in that. It just didn’t work for me. If I had a child in the future and they wanted to go, I would highly encourage them to do so. It just has to be the right program and the right coaching set-up.”
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