Courtesy of a set of wedding vows made during the offseason, Georgia Bell has become, quite literally, a Hunter. At this week’s European Indoor Championships, though, the Briton is the one they all have to catch.
It is a novel position for an athlete who surprised with her unexpected run to Olympic bronze in Paris last summer, the culmination of a remarkable comeback journey from ‘Parkrun to podium’. Now, she is suddenly the most established name on a youthful British team in Apeldoorn and firm favourite to land a first major international title, having run almost three seconds faster this season than her closest rival in the 1500m field.
"It was quite fun being the underdog,” says Hunter Bell, as she is now known after marrying long-term partner George in October. “I really enjoyed that role last year because I just knew I was in great shape. I had loads of confidence.
“Now, I'm going into it with the new challenge this year of being expected to win. I'm saying publicly: ‘I’m going for European gold’. That is different, so I'm adjusting to it.”
Early signs are that she is doing so well. Last month in New York, Hunter Bell took down a high-class international field to win the mile at the prestigious Millrose Games. Then, she lowered her 1500m best indoors to four minutes flat at the Keely Klassic, a new event that is the brainchild of training partner Keely Hodgkinson.
The 800m gold medalist from Paris missed the meeting herself through injury and remains sidelined now, but in the meantime has been helping Hunter Bell adapt to her post-Olympic surge in status, having struggled following her own breakthrough in Tokyo four years ago.
“She is such a good person to discuss it with,” Hunter-Bell says. “She worked with a sports psychologist to change that mindset from seeing yourself as a medalist to seeing yourself as a winner. It's something that I'm going to explore this year because I do agree it is different.
"You have to think like a gold medalist to be able to make that happen when the margins are so small.”
Beyond the billing, there have been material changes to Hunter Bell’s athletic existence over the past six months, with the 31-year-old taking the plunge in quitting her cybersecurity job to commit to the track full-time.
Last summer, she had been granted a sabbatical to focus on Paris, her case helped by Steve Cram’s commentary during the World Indoor Championships, when the middle-distance great remarked that “Georgia Bell must know that if she goes full time, she'll be able to make the Olympics”. Hunter Bell knew her bosses would be watching: she had left a note in her out-of-office email linking to the BBC coverage.
Having originally pledged to return to work in September, it became obvious in the aftermath of Paris that Hunter Bell’s laptop had been closed for good. Nike improved her contract to make athletics feasible as a living and her old colleagues were understanding, knowing it was “very much a following a dream thing”.
"I owe it to myself just to see what is capable over these next four years in the run up to Los Angeles [where the 2028 Olympics will be held],” she explains. “What is achievable and what could I do with a few years as a professional under my belt?”
Overnight, Hunter Bell’s regime has been transformed. The days of waking up to train at 6am before work, then heading out again in the evening dark are done.
She travels to Manchester for around one week each month, to train with Hodgkinson under the eye of coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, and can join their M11 Track Club training camps in South Africa - three in the space of four months this winter - without worrying about working remotely or taking annual leave.
“I wake up every day really excited for the day,” she says. “Versus [before] it being: ‘How on earth am I going to do all of this, and try and train, and book time off on Friday to get myself to Dortmund, and race well?’”
For the first time, Hunter Bell is also incorporating serious strength and conditioning work, a non-negotiable element for elite athletes in virtually every sport but one she had previously had little choice but to omit.
“I was already working long days, trying to fit in training around it and I couldn’t guarantee that going to the gym, there wouldn’t be big queue for the equipment and things,” she says. “I just purely did not have the time, so I wasn’t doing anything - and that was definitely a risk.”
Already, she says, she feels “stronger…a little bit more powerful”, but knows the time has come to showcase it on the track.
“You would think going full-time, being able to do all these extra things that I wasn't able to before, there should be an improvement,” she says. “It gives me motivation and I'm hopeful. But I know I need to prove myself all over again.”
