U.S. ladies' skater Mariah Bell is a bit of a rarity these days. While the buzz in ladies' skating is all about teenage phenoms with quads and triple Axels, 23-year-old Bell is finding increasing success with a focus on performance quality, artistry and consistency. After winning bronze at her first Grand Prix event this season, Bell is hoping for another strong showing this week at Rostelecom Cup.
Bell is coming off an exciting, but stressful, season in 2018-19. "Last year was the best season of my entire career," Bell said of her competitive results. She achieved her highest placement at the World Championships (9th), won her second bronze medal at the U.S. Championships, and also won a Challenger Series medal. "I had a lot of growth in my consistency, which was exciting," Bell noted.
Bell enters this season with a new face in her coaching team: Adam Rippon, her friend and former training partner. Rippon became involved with Bell's career as a choreographer last year. This season, he again choreographed her short program and is also coaching her part-time.
Rafael Arutunian remains Bell's head coach. "I think he's one of the best technical coaches, if not the best, in the world," Bell said. "And I feel so fortunate to be able to work with him." However, her day-to-day working relationship with Arutunian has evolved, now that she has spent three years in his group.
"When I first came to him, I needed a lot of attention," Bell said. "So he gave me a lot of attention. As I've worked with him longer, I understand him so much better, and he understands me. So, he's loosening up the reins. Rafael told me at the beginning of this season: 'I held your hand a little bit more the past few seasons, and I'm not holding it anymore.'"
Bell said that she does not currently have any regularly scheduled lessons with Arutunian. However, he is always at the rink and available if she needs him. "He's constantly watching," Bell said. "And if he sees anything that's a little bit off, he'll call me over. So I don't have a specific lesson time, but he's always watching."
Bell welcomes the challenge of taking greater responsibility for her own training. "I'm an adult. For what I have right now [technically], there's not a lot that he hasn't already told me," she noted. "And it's just about me taking the initiative and doing it. Until we start working on quads and triple Axels."
With Arutunian stepping back from a directive role, Bell turned to Rippon to help provide structure for her daily training. "Adam would work so hard when he trained and he was still competing and we trained together," Bell recalled. "And I just thought: I'd love to know what he did in a day. So he's come in and helped me train."
At Rippon's suggestion, Bell is doing more program run-throughs this year than in the past. "It's really good, and very challenging," Bell said of the increase in run-throughs. "When Adam works with me, it'll be like, we've done a short [program] and a long [program]. And he'll say, 'Okay, let's do another long.' At first, I was like, 'Oh, my gosh,'" she said with a laugh. "But it's gotten to the point now where I feel I'm in much better shape, and I really enjoy that training."
Bell said the exact number of run-throughs varies by day. "Some days I do more, some days less. Usually Wednesdays are a bit lighter. But always doing one of each [program], each day, with the jumps," she said. "As long as you're training well, and you're training hard, that's where the results are going to come from." Bell feels that the additional run-throughs have improved her stamina and competition readiness.
She foresees Rippon taking a larger role in her coaching. "He's going to U.S. Championships with me, and potentially some other competitions," said Bell. "And I think as these next few seasons come together, he'll be more and more in a coaching role. Adam and Rafael get along really well; Rafael loves him. So it's like I have the perfect team now."
Rippon also developed Bell's new short program. "Adam came to me last year before Worlds and he said, 'You need to skate to Britney Spears. I really think you should.' And I was like: 'Umm, okay.' It's not really my first choice in music. I love Britney Spears's music, but it wasn't my first choice for a competitive program," Bell confessed.
However, she decided to try it, based on her trust in Rippon. Bell also wanted to experiment with different music styles prior to the next Olympic season, so she can determine which styles suit her best. She's come to enjoy the Spears program. "It's one of my favorite programs to train," she said.
For her free skate, Bell chose "Hallelujah" by KD Lang. Choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne suggested the song. "It was almost unreal, because I've always loved 'Hallelujah,'" Bell remarked, describing the song as "powerful and emotional." The free skate has received raves from fans and strong marks from judges.
One thing that sets Bell apart from some of her competitors is her joyfulness on the ice. She often smiles as she skates and appears radiant and deeply involved in the performance. Bell confirmed that she does indeed enjoy performing, even in a competitive setting.
"I absolutely love skating. It's my biggest passion, it's what I've done for as long as I can remember," Bell said. "My family has sacrificed a lot to help me get here. And never in a negative way; they've always just done whatever they could to help me chase my dreams. So I feel fortunate to be able to do it every day. And when I go to competitions, I love sharing what I love to do."
Although Bell emphasizes performance and interpretation, she's also looking to improve technically. "I'm doing now seven triples in my long program, whereas last year, I was only doing six," she noted of this year's jump layout.
Bell has added a triple flip-triple toe loop combination to her free skate (replacing last year's double Axel/triple toe). Also, the triple Salchow is back in her free skate for the first time since 2017.
"Salchow can be a jump that's a little bit up and down for me," Bell commented. "I really like tap jumps; I usually feel really good and solid with those. Edge jumps can be a little less solid than my tap jumps. But I feel like I've grown so much that I'm ready to try some harder things technically and work on the consistency of those."
So far, Bell's technical improvements and artistic acumen are paying off. Bell opened her season with a win at Nebelhorn Trophy. It was the first international victory of her career so far—a highlight moment, yet one that Bell keeps in perspective.
"There's some performances that I've done where I've gotten second or third, and I've been just as proud and excited with how I skated," Bell remarked. "But I've been competing internationally for a really long time--years and years--so it's nice to have a gold," she admitted, with a laugh.
Bell followed up that victory with two solid programs at Internationaux de France, where she placed second in the free skate and won bronze overall. It was her second career Grand Prix medal.
As she looks toward Rostelecom Cup, Bell is aware that she'll again face strong competition there, including young Russian star Alexandra Trusova, who has multiple quads in her arsenal. Bell insists that the prospect is not daunting.
"It would be silly for me to step out of myself and look at a group of people and then become scared," said Bell. "Regardless of whom I'm competing against, I'm doing the same program. We have these incredible young Russian girls who are doing quads, but it won't change what I'm doing in my program. My task is always the same. I'm just excited to go compete, because I know that I'm ready, and that I can put out solid performances."
Bell remains focused on her own skating and tries not to let expectations about results affect her. "It all just connects back to how I skate. I'm always going to go out and give 100 percent, myself," she said. "And the placements, or the points, will just fall where they will. My job is to just do my job. It makes it easier, a little bit, to think that way."
So far, that mindset is yielding positive results for Mariah Bell.
