Mariah Bell Firing on All Cylinders Ahead of Return to Greensboro

In 2011, when the U.S. Championships were held in Greensboro, North Carolina, a 14-year-old Mariah Bell took home her first medal on the national stage, a bronze in the novice division.
 
In 2020, the U.S. Championships return to Greensboro, and so does Mariah Bell.
 
Now 23 years old and a seasoned senior, much has changed for Bell since her first U.S. Championships.
 
In fact, much has changed for Bell even since the 2019 U.S. Championships.
 
2019 was Bell's most successful year in terms of results, tripling her career Grand Prix medals in a single season – she won bronze medals at both Internationaux de France and Rostelecom Cup, when she had previously had just one silver to her name from Skate America in 2016.
 
"This first half of the season, it's gone the best of any first-half season," Bell said. "So I'm really proud of that. It's kind of crazy, I kind of feel like it just came and went. There was this buildup in the summer and then all of a sudden, the Grand Prixes were gone. But I really enjoyed each of them, and felt like I made huge improvements on last year."
 
Bell hopes to continue her ascent at the 2020 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro on Jan. 20-26.
 
Her improvements this season coincided directly with changes in her coaching situation.
 
Bell is still training with Rafael Arutunian in California. When she first moved to train with him, Arutunian told her they would need two years to start seeing bigger improvements.
 
Those improvements began showing themselves last season, when she finished third at the 2019 U.S. Championships, tying her career-best result, and setting a new career best with a ninth-place finish at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2019.
 
Over the summer, Arutunian broke some news.
 
"I was kind of talking to him about training, and he's always very open when we come to him with questions," Bell said, "but he said, 'You know Mariah, it's not my job. That's not my job anymore. When you came to me, you needed more guidance, and I did. I held your hand. I helped you. I gave you more attention.'
 
"He sees it as, now I have all the tools that I need, which I feel I do as well. He's taught me so well over these last three seasons, plus a little bit. So everything that I need, I have from him. The rest is just figuring out the best way to train those things."
 
It was a daunting task. As Bell began working more independently, she realized she did want more structure in terms of a training plan, and she knew just who to turn to.
 
Former training-mate Adam Rippon.
 
Before retiring following the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, Rippon was a student of Arutunian's, and Bell always admired how hard he worked.
 
"I feel like I've always been a hard worker," Bell said. "I've put my time in on the ice and everything. But I would be leaving (the rink), and (Rippon) would be doing another run-through of a program. So he was just always so hardworking, and really, really positive, and a great role model for everybody."
 
Bell had previously worked with Rippon for choreography, but this year he moved into more of a coaching role. Rippon is listed as both coach and choreographer on Bell's ISU profile, and Bell says that the hard work really began over the summer, when Rippon came in and whipped her into shape.
 
"He just basically told me what to do and I did it, and it was a lot," Bell said, laughing. "There were a lot of programs. It was super fun though. Adam's so great. But I would kind of be thinking I was getting towards the end of the day, and he'd be like, 'Okay, let's do one more long program.' And so it would kind of catch me off guard, but it really got me in shape and made me kind of understand, maybe, that I was working hard before, but I could do a lot more and handle a lot more."
 
Rippon also had a hand in helping Bell decide on her short program music, "Radar" and "Work B****" by Britney Spears. (Her free skate, set to "Hallelujah" by KD Lang, is more in line with what Bell has skated to in the past.)
 
Rippon and Arutunian essentially play good cop, bad cop as Bell's coaching team – while Arutunian will yell and be more vocal, Rippon tends to be calm and very motivating – giving Bell the best of both worlds.
 
Without specific lessons from Arutunian, Bell and the other elite skaters at the rink in Lakewood, California, skate sessions under his watchful eye.
 
"I get constant feedback from him," Bell said. "But at the same time, he's not somebody who will ever tell me, 'You should do a long program. You should do another long program. You should do a short program, or you should do another short program.' That's very much the responsibility of the athlete.
 
"I see him really now as my technical advisor."
 
While Rippon is often busy traveling, Bell sees him a few times a month for a few days or a week at a time. Rippon and Arutunian will occasionally get together to put a plan together for Bell's season.
 
"I think it's really the perfect balance for me to have a coach that I see every day, but he's not like Adam in the sense that he will tell me what to do, and he sees us as we need to be professionals," Bell said. "So I have a perfect balance."
 
It was quite an adjustment, but the results are already apparent. Bell enjoys the daily grind of training, and went into her Grand Prix assignments feeling strong, confident and prepared, focusing on her own performances rather than results and placements.
 
"I've been a senior lady for a few years now, and I know that medals and placements are truly out of my control," Bell said. "So I knew I had the potential to do exactly what I did, but it wasn't something that I thought about very often. The only thing I was thinking about was skating the way that I did, because that's always the only thing that I can control."
 
That being said, despite winning two Grand Prix medals, Bell missed out on what would've been her first Grand Prix Final on a tiebreaker. While disappointing, Bell knew it would've been extremely tough to have improved on either of her medal finishes, so she's not losing much sleep over it.
 
"I was really proud of how I did at the Grand Prixs, but I was bummed to miss out," she said. "But at the same time, I was excited that I was that close. I'd never been that close before, or never been considered in that top tier of ladies. So yeah, I was bummed, but it was out of my control, and I skated well. And I'm excited to see my name going up the ranks and among the top ladies in the world."
 
Things have never been clicking better for Bell, and she's ready to come full-circle back in Greensboro a decade after she first competed there.
 
"Ten years ago, I was starting out my U.S. Championships journey in Greensboro, so I'm super excited to be going back," she said. "I've had a blast and look forward to continuing to have a blast."

The 2020 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships will be live and on demand on the Figure Skating Pass on NBC Sports Gold. Tickets are available at ncskate2020.com.