Bell, Chen and Liu Living Olympic Dream, But Head to Beijing with Something to Prove

During the summer of 2021, Mariah Bell was at a low point.
 
She was coming off a fifth-place finish at the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships, matching her worst finish since she first made it onto the podium in 2017, and was hit with the end of a long-term relationship.
 
Six months later, she won her first U.S. title and was named to her first Olympic team.
 
"I felt lost, and I was broken for a little bit," Bell said. "And I decided that this was something that I completely was capable of, and I wasn't going to let this dream slip away. I just really leaned into my support system, and I'm so grateful for all the highs, all the lows. I wouldn't change a thing."
 
Bell will be joined at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 by 2018 Olympian Karen Chen and 2020 World Junior bronze medalist Alysa Liu, also making her Olympic debut.
 
At 25, Bell is the most veteran member of the women's team in a sport that currently seems to be the domain of teenagers. But don't count her experience for nothing, Bell says, pointing out that Russia's Irina Slutskaya won her second World title when she was 26.
 
"It's not unheard of, it's just maybe more uncommon right now," Bell said. "Especially a while ago, I think there were far more older skaters, but right now it seems like the culture is these young girls that are doing these incredible elements. But for me, I really feel like it's my superpower. I have all of this experience. I wasn't ready to be an Olympian or to win nationals (U.S. Championships) or do any of those things when I was younger. That's just my story. I happened to be ready when I was 25, and so I'm really excited to see what the future holds."
 
Chen was 18 when she made her Olympic debut in PyeongChang, South Korea, and in fact says she was perhaps under-prepared for the biggest stage in the world.
 
"2018 was very overwhelming for me," Chen said. "I'm used to doing competitions where there was just skaters, and to be at an event where there were so many other incredible athletes was extraordinary and amazing, but it was also super, super overwhelming for my 18-year-old mind. But now, four years later, I've definitely matured. I'm a different person, I'm a different skater, and I'm hoping to use that knowledge to help me be better prepared."
 
Chen placed 11th in PyeongChang and was disappointed with her performance there, immediately knowing that she wanted to try to make another Olympic team to redeem herself.
 
"After the first Olympics, I knew that I didn't have the skates that I wanted," Chen said. "I remember going through media and I said that I wanted to come back, I wanted to have my redemption story. It's been a hard four years. I definitely made a lot of sacrifices. There were a lot of hard decisions that were made, but I think all of those decisions turned out to be the right ones, and I'm really happy that I'll be going to Beijing."
 
Chen also had an instrumental part in earning three berths for U.S. women in Beijing with her fourth-place finish at the 2021 ISU World Figure Skating Championships.
 
Liu would go on to win the Nebelhorn Trophy in September to secure the third spot.
 
"Thinking about how Worlds went for me last year, I really went there just thinking about, 'I want to skate my absolute best and perform the heck out of my programs,' and I was lucky to get fourth there," Chen said. "Anything can happen. We just need to focus on what we can control, and that is to put our best skate forward."
 
Liu was unable to join Bell and Chen on the podium at the U.S. Championships, withdrawing due to a positive COVID-19 test following a third-place short program. She was added to the Olympic Team based on the strength of her results all season.
 
"I'm really excited," Liu said. "I've basically been training forever for this moment, and I'm really happy with the decisions I've made, because apparently they were all pretty good ones and I'm here right now."
 
Liu burst onto the scene as a 13-year-old in 2019, becoming the youngest woman ever to win a U.S. title – and the youngest woman ever to win two U.S. titles. She's the third U.S. woman to land a triple Axel in international competition, and the first U.S. woman ever to land a quadruple jump in competition.
 
It's a long list of accolades for a skater so young, and it meant she's been in the spotlight for years.
 
It also means that she's confident she can handle the Olympic moment.
 
"I'll probably handle it a lot better than I would when I was younger," Liu said. "When I was younger, I had a really hard time handling all of it, because it was a lot and I wasn't used to it. But now, I know how to handle it."
 
The U.S. ladies head to Beijing knowing that the last U.S. woman to win an Olympic medal was Sasha Cohen in 2006.
 
And maybe the Russians are the talk of the town these days, but they're no stranger to heroics on the world stage, and Bell is bullish on their chances.
 
"I think, quite honestly, we've all done really well internationally, and it really just depends on how everybody does. But that's really not our business, to be honest," Bell said with a laugh. "It's our business to do what we can do best, and if we all do the absolute best that we can, I think that we'll be very happy, and there could be some big surprises in the rankings. And that's the goal, is to just go, focus on what we can do best, and that is how we will best represent Team USA and the United States and ourselves. And then, regardless of what happens, we'll be very proud."