GB skier Reece Bell out to continue family legacy at next year’s Winter Olympics
Bell’s father and uncle both starred on the slopes.
Reece Bell is not exactly short of inspiration as she seeks to extend the legacy of Britain’s pre-eminent skiing family by sealing her place at next year’s Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina.
Bell’s father Martin finished eighth in the men’s downhill in Calgary in 1988, a result that may have been overshadowed by Eddie the Eagle’s histrionics, but remains the country’s best alpine result at a Games.
Uncle Graham also represented Great Britain at five Games and Bell grew up enchanted by their stories, choosing at a young age to follow in their ski trails in the hope of one day reaching the Olympics herself.
“Skiing has always been such a big part of my dad’s life and it was my goal to go to the Olympics even before I really understood what the sport of skiing was about,” Bell told the PA news agency.
“I was never pushed into it at all and I started skiing just for fun, but when I was as young as five I knew that was what I wanted to do.
“I think it’s cool that my dad and my uncle have left such a legacy, two brothers competing from such a small country and doing as well as they did.”
Bell, who has mainly competed in the United States and on the Europa Cup circuit so far in her career, is preparing to compete in the women’s slalom at her second World Championships in Saalbach, Austria, this Saturday.
A recent graduate of the University of Denver, where she majored in ecology, Bell has already fought through a series of injury setbacks, including two anterior ligament injuries that wiped out the majority of two of her first few years on the circuit.
During her recovery, Bell has not had to look far for inspiration. Martin was the same age when sustained his first ACL injury and seven years later embarked on his famous Olympic run that saw him breach the top 10 and finish within three seconds of gold medallist Pirmin Zurbriggen.
Bell has also been taking lessons from the sport’s ultimate underdog, GB team-mate Dave Ryding, who capped his remarkable journey from the Pendle dry slope to the top of the World Cup podium when he scored his historic victory in Kitzbuhel in 2022.
Ryding was himself spurred on by a dry slope camp led by Martin Bell and has come closest to eclipsing his record, finishing in ninth place in the men’s slalom in Pyeongchang in 2018.
Through an arrangement with mutual sponsors, Ryding now acts as Bell’s mentor and she added: “We have calls every few weeks and talk through what I’m working on and what races would be good to go to.
“It’s so useful to have that kind of input because Dave worked his way up from Europa Cup all the way to winning a World Cup race, so he knows what it takes.
“He never gave up, even when it didn’t happen straight away for him. I feel like I can relate that to my career right now. The Olympics is obviously my main goal, but if I get there I want to so having felt like I’ve really earned it.”
