The favourite for 1500m gold at the European championships on her second chance after quitting at 23, learning from Keely Hodgkinson and eyeing an LA 2028 double
“I grew up and was always just good at running,” says Georgia Hunter Bell, as she remembers the moment she felt her career was over at 23. “I always thought that I would be a professional athlete, go to the Olympics, all of that. So it was quite brutal when I had to make peace with the fact that it was not going to happen.”
At that stage Hunter Bell’s body was broken. Her teenage promise – she was the UK’s top 15-year-old having run a 2:08 min 800m – worn away by injuries aggravated by overtraining in the US collegiate system. She retired; found a job in tech; didn’t run on the track for five years. And then came a comeback straight out of a Hollywood feelgood movie.
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