Georgia Hunter Bell (née Bell; born 17 October 1993) is an English track and field athlete who competes as a middle distance runner, and in the duathlon. In 2024, she won a bronze medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the 1500...
Her progression is no more suspect than Josh Hoey's.
Hoey ran 1:47 indoors at 18 (6-7s off the outdoor WR). She ran what? 2:03 at age 20 or 21 (almost 10 seconds off). Then she runs faster over 1500 (a faster pace despite it being almost twice as long) at age 30?
Hoey did have a big progression, but the best analogy would be Rupp / Centro vs Shelby / Kiprop / Katir. Someone who might have doped, or a flagrant doper...
Her progression is no more suspect than Josh Hoey's.
“Suspect progression” is an argument that gets used against anyone who runs a fast time at any point.
That's simply not true. At least, no credible questions about progression come up just because someone runs a fast time.
Running significant outlier times after years and years of training and racing at the top level, with great coaching, and access to altitude training, nutritionists, etc., at an age that would generally correlate with slowing down... that's a different story in terms of eye-popping progression.
“Suspect progression” is an argument that gets used against anyone who runs a fast time at any point.
That's simply not true. At least, no credible questions about progression come up just because someone runs a fast time.
Running significant outlier times after years and years of training and racing at the top level, with great coaching, and access to altitude training, nutritionists, etc., at an age that would generally correlate with slowing down... that's a different story in terms of eye-popping progression.
“Credible questions” is a dodge. I said nothing about whether the accusations are credible.
Name a professional distance runner with a time you consider fast, and I can find a thread on here where someone says they have a suspect progression.
That's simply not true. At least, no credible questions about progression come up just because someone runs a fast time.
Running significant outlier times after years and years of training and racing at the top level, with great coaching, and access to altitude training, nutritionists, etc., at an age that would generally correlate with slowing down... that's a different story in terms of eye-popping progression.
“Credible questions” is a dodge. I said nothing about whether the accusations are credible.
Name a professional distance runner with a time you consider fast, and I can find a thread on here where someone says they have a suspect progression.
My point is that there are accusations that are credible and those that are throwing spaghetti against a wall.
If you disagree, that's fine.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
This topic has been done to death but yeah, her progression is incredibly suspicious. She set a lifetime PB of 4:06.20 a couple months before her 30th birthday, and a year later ran 3:52.61 for Olympic bronze.
This topic has been done to death but yeah, her progression is incredibly suspicious. She set a lifetime PB of 4:06.20 a couple months before her 30th birthday, and a year later ran 3:52.61 for Olympic bronze.
So what? I ran my 1500 PB at 43. And my 3000 and 800m PBs at 45.
Or…someone that was a promising junior athlete took another path, developed massive aerobic strength via cycling/duathlon, and then made a return to their first sport with fresh legs and a fresh mind?
I will grant that drugs are a huge problem in the sport and we always have to assume that big names will get popped. Hunter-Bell and Alex Yee offer some evidence that cross training offers benefits and that grinding out the traditional runner’s schedule is not the only path to success.
I will also posit that a big reason for Hunter-Bell’s success is that she worked a 9-5 in cyber security until recently. Having an income and skills outside of running very likely blunts many of the neurotic and anxiety driven behaviors that we see in many elites. If she never improves or gets a major injury, then back to the office! Many one dimensional elites are two years and some poor spending decisions away from poverty should their careers come to a halt. That keeps them up at night whenever they feel a niggle or a sore spot.
in closing, I am rather surprised that Hunter-Bell gets so much suspicion here. She should be an inspiration to you post-collegiate cubicle serfs that have the talent to get an OTQ or that want to give going pro one more try before settling into careers, families, and the inevitable dad bod phases of life.
Or…someone that was a promising junior athlete took another path, developed massive aerobic strength via cycling/duathlon, and then made a return to their first sport with fresh legs and a fresh mind?
I will grant that drugs are a huge problem in the sport and we always have to assume that big names will get popped. Hunter-Bell and Alex Yee offer some evidence that cross training offers benefits and that grinding out the traditional runner’s schedule is not the only path to success.
I will also posit that a big reason for Hunter-Bell’s success is that she worked a 9-5 in cyber security until recently. Having an income and skills outside of running very likely blunts many of the neurotic and anxiety driven behaviors that we see in many elites. If she never improves or gets a major injury, then back to the office! Many one dimensional elites are two years and some poor spending decisions away from poverty should their careers come to a halt. That keeps them up at night whenever they feel a niggle or a sore spot.
in closing, I am rather surprised that Hunter-Bell gets so much suspicion here. She should be an inspiration to you post-collegiate cubicle serfs that have the talent to get an OTQ or that want to give going pro one more try before settling into careers, families, and the inevitable dad bod phases of life.
Imagine if Nuguse had run 3:39.94 in 2023 prior to taking bronze in 3:27.80 last year. That’s the equivalent of what Bell did, except she’s almost 6 years older than him. Are you really surprised people find her suspicious?
The age argument is horsecrap until you reach 35-40. We see aerobic and strength/flexibility declines in NORMAL people at that age but there is mounting evidence that athletes defy those losses for up to a decade in comparison. It’s also about wear and tear. A 30 year old that does 70% of their aerobic work on a bicycle or ARC trainer is going to be fresher at that age than a pure runner with a decade of high mileage on their legs. Running middle distances doesn’t require super high mileage as there is minimal pounding and DOMS compared to longer distance athletes.
Training evolves. Once upon a time, it was orthodoxy to run nothing but reps/intervals to get “tough enough” to survive a distance race. Then it switched to LSD miles because aerobic development became king. Next, a balanced mix of big miles and speed. Now double threshold is all the rage. Perhaps heavy cross training and targeted quality is the next evolution? All of this works to some degree. Why do people become so disbelieving? I feel that it’s more a personal bias or affront because it contradicts the poster’s personal beliefs.
