Bell, 25, the oldest American Olympian in the singles competition since 1928, got through her routine without falling, and the joy rarely left her face.
"I think I'm just going to really enjoy the Games and that'll allow me to be where I am, be present," Bell tells PEOPLE. "It's like you've made it, ...
I'll just be able to be in the Olympic spirit and be around everyone and be around my teammates. "There were some things that I had to work through to get to this moment and it makes this moment that much sweeter. I was capable and I had all the support that I needed. And I decided I was so close to this ultimate goal that nothing was going to effect. And so moving to California, I moved with him in 2016 and we were training together and then living together and fast forward three years later, we're engaged and I have this incredible [skate at] nationals and I'm engaged and I had this amazing nationals and I'm just feeling like I'm on top of the world. I have this one year left and then sort of right in the middle of the summer, it just, I was hit with the end of this relationship I never saw coming. I have all these other skaters that I'm working with.' And I really respect him for treating me that way, but I also have never been treated that way. But the biggest thing really is just when I'm enjoying something, be in the moment and I think I'm just going to really enjoy the Games and that'll allow me to be where I am, be present. And so it's just perfect because he's somebody who is a little bit more kind of hands-on with my everyday training and this overall season planning and Rafael oversees everything, everything that we do, everything that I do and they have such a great relationship. And that's against those top three Russians that are going to the Olympics. Nobody knows what's going to happen. "There can be this sort of stigma or a culture around skating where you have to do it when you're young and that's just not the case. And I think it's super fun because I don't feel old in the slightest.
Two Team USA skaters are guaranteed a top 10 finish in the women's program after their stunning free skates Thursday morning.
Combined with her 65.38 from the short program, it gave her a total of 202.30, which at the time, put her in first place in the competition before she was surpassed by South Korea's Kim Ye-Lim. There, she was greeted with a hug from fellow Team USA skater Mariah Bell, who had just finished her own stunning performance minutes earlier. She scored a 139.45 while performing to "Violin Concerto in D," catapulting her to the top of the leader board.
Mariah Bell is almost 10 years older than Kamila Valieva and teammate Alysa Liu -- and making her long-awaited Olympic figure skating debut in Beijing ...
“I think there’s a lot to say about experience," said Bell, whose score of 216.25 points at nationals was far behind the world-record 272.71 set by Russia’s Kamila Valieva this season. USA star Alysa Liu, the youngest athlete representing Team USA at the 2022 Winter Olympics, finished in seventh place, earning a 139.45 in the free skate for a total score of 208.95, while Cornell University grad Karen Chen was more in the middle-of-the-pack in standings. Valieva earned the first-place spot with a score of 82.16. And check the schedule for all your favorite skating stars. Bell also became the oldest woman in 95 years to win the national championship. Bell started skating when she was just 3 years old.
Alysa Liu narrowly missed joining an exclusive club of women's figure skaters to land a triple axel at the Winter Olympics.
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Mariah Bell put together a strong performance in the free skate program of women's singles figure skating event at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The 25-year-old skated to the song, "Hallelujah", scoring a 136.92 in the second half of the singles event. Mariah Bell put together as strong of a performance as she could have asked for in the free skate portion of the women's singles figure skating event.
The women's individual figure skating competition came to an emotional and tear-filled close on Wednesday, but the three U.S. women's figure skaters won't.
Bell added, "You don't come out of the Olympics saying it was solely the most amazing experience of your life. But, [the situation] makes me even more proud to be part of a team of clean athletes." "I had a really great time on the ice.
Mariah Bell's fall-free free skate to "Hallelujah" at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics gave her the Olympic moment she was hoping for. She got 10th.
Weir said, "This was a wonderful tribute to a very long, very successful career that she's had to fight hard for." "This was the exact Olympic moment she was hoping for. Lipinski replied, "She really is the quintessential skater," and commented on her "classic style and lines." "To perfect simplicity is much harder than to disguise imperfection, and she fought," Weir said, referring to Bell's near slip, where she didn't put a foot or hand down. She was a second alternate for Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics. US skater Mariah Bell performed beautifully during her free skate to k.d. lang's rendition of "Hallelujah" at the 2022 Olympics. After falling during her short program, she took out the triple-triple for this free skate.