Inside The Secret Struggles of a Running Superstar | Georgia Hunter Bell (E411)

0:02Welcome to a very special episode of High Performance, made possible by our partners at Vauxhall. Now, today we're doing things a little bit differently. So we've left the studio behind and we've hit the road. We packed up our Vauxhall Combo Electric with all the production gear that we need and we've headed down to Crystal Palace to meet Team GB athlete Georgia Hunter Bell. And I've waited so long for a conversation with an athlete who has a story like no other. And you know the only reason we could just pick up our studio like this and move it a few miles through central London is because of the team at Vauxhall, who are doing something that I think is so impressive, investing£100 million into electric production right here in the UK and making electric vehicle charging more accessible to all with their electric streets campaign.

0:42In fact, the Vauxhall Combo Electric, which I was lucky enough to drive, has been proudly made in Britain, built at Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port Plant, the first manufacturing site in the country to exclusively build all electric vans. And why are we talking to Georgia? Well, Vauxhall are the official automotive partner for Team GB through to the 2028 LA Olympics. So they helped line up this fantastic conversation. Don't let the small signs of the van fool you because the payload was generous. We managed to get all of our stuff, multiple cameras, light, all the recording equipment in their 4.4 meter cube load space.

1:14And the van handled everything with ease. It kind of felt more like a car than a van, if I'm being honest. Carpeted floor, built-in sat-nav, 10-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with some solid safety features as well. So anyway, I got there, which is the good news. And then myself and Georgia Hunter-Bell had a really special conversation where she opened up and told us something about her life that she's never publicly revealed before. So this is us having a chat at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, thanks to Vauxhall. Hope you enjoy the conversation. Georgia.

1:43Georgia Hunter Bell: Hi. Nice to meet you. How are you doing? Good, thank you. Do you like my van? Love it. Yeah, I think you deserve to drive that far more than me actually being in Team GB. Shall we go for a walk? You let's do it. Oh, thanks for doing this i really appreciate it i am so excited to have a conversation with you about the moment where you actually walked away is that cool it is cool i mean i feel like i've had a bit of a different journey in the sport in general because yeah as you say was a very good junior had all this promise and definitely thought i was going to make it as an athlete but then had this big dip and completely gave up and so to come back and actually make an olympic team and get a medal pretty crazy yeah it's quite cool can we rewind to when you went to the states yeah and you thought this is the next step on my road to sporting glory and then as you've just mentioned you walked away i'd love to go deep on that moment was there a day where you like woke up and thought i don't feel the same about athletics and i can imagine that could be quite scary it was quite scary because i think you know when you're young you feel like the world's your oyster and you can achieve anything and then you grow up.

2:51Georgia Hunter Bell: And suddenly I was 23, graduating from university in the States on a track scholarship and I hadn't made it as an athlete and it was like, right. What do you mean hadn't made it? I had only, my times and my performances had only got worse since taking the track scholarship. So I had never really delivered on the potential that I'd seen as a junior. So I went over to the US thinking, this is going to be the making of me I'm going to become a professional athlete and injuries illness I just got worse and worse and worse and that was pretty tough to swallow just to accept that you know this isn't going to happen or so I thought.

3:31I can't imagine how that is when it's been the thing you've done since you were a little kid.

3:37Georgia Hunter Bell: Yeah literally my identity like I'm one of three girls and it was like oh you're the runner you're the runner like that's how people would identify me at school, family, and then suddenly I wasn't the runner. I think everyone around could see that I was kind of on this decline. And so it was kind of an unspoken elephant in the room that things aren't going as well as planned. And so when I did make the decision towards the end of my running career in the US, it wasn't a surprise, I don't think, to many people. But obviously, they were disappointed for me. And I was disappointed myself. But in a way, it was actually quite a big relief I was like I'm I'm not enjoying this anymore like I do need to step back and now having the benefit of hindsight I think that was a really good thing for me because I think if I tried to keep slogging on not achieving what I once had I would have just been a really really miserable human yeah and now coming to the track and racing and having this kind of second chance with running I actually think it's kind of my biggest strength the perspective that I have because who else on the start line has had the journey that I've had who else has sat in an office and worked nine to five or given up and come back like no one and so I think that brings something really unique that I have over my competitors yeah I think that's a really interesting angle I do want to talk about that in detail but before we get there this moment where you decided to to stop was there an event or a competition or a meet that you were at and you were like no I'm done can you remember how that felt yeah um it was probably in the NCAA so the American system I was doing the 1500 meters and I think I knew going into it was going to be my last race it was the last event on the calendar and how old were you I was 21 23 so I went over when I was 21 I was 23 years old and yeah I was just like this is going to be last one I'll literally never put on spikes ever again no way yeah I knew going into it that would be the case or I thought it would be the case because I just said how am I ever gonna run track again like after this experience and it's time to walk away and what happened in that race I can't remember where I came but it was bad I just didn't want to be out there the thing that I really noticed actually was on start line I just felt numb and now when I race I've got the nerves like even when I think about racing particular events I get that just standing there and that I think is a really good indicator to me it means like hair means that I'm up for it and like before that race I was just checked out let's get this over with and that's where my head was not in the right place to be an athlete because it takes so much as I'm sure you know speaking to people absolutely and it's really interesting what you say about if you're nervous or you've got imposter syndrome if you've got doubt or you've got fear yeah then that's a great thing because I think so many people live a life where they think if those are the emotions then they're on the wrong path and actually so often as you've just said you're on the right path yeah if you've got anxiety because you care about what you're doing whereas you just felt numb ahead of that race exactly and i feel like as soon as that goes again if that happened in like a year's time that would be a real indicator to me that i'm not connecting with the purpose of this i'm not enjoying it and you need that to be able to be fighting for medals for team gb when you're in the biggest stages because those other competitors are so you finish that last race as you cross the line in your head you're thinking thank god this is over yeah not just that race but your career you were like thank god my career is over yeah i just said it's time yeah it's time to move on i this feels so familiar to me but it's time to shut the door and honestly for probably like six months i was pretty happy living the life of closing the chapter of being an athlete i could go out for dinner with my friends i could go to Coachella.

7:29Georgia Hunter Bell: I was living in the States. I was just able to be a normal 20-year-old, which was really fun. And then it was only when I moved back to London that I started to really feel the loss of that identity and really feel like I was missing a lot of purpose in my life. I was working a job in tech sales, which I did really like, but I just didn't have the same passion, drive every day. And that's when I really started to think, oh my God, I really miss I really miss running, not just necessarily competing, but just what it gave me on a day-to-day, and I want to get that back. So when you finished, did you, what, go to a coach or call your parents, or how do you make that decision?

8:12Because I imagine a lot of people would have been like, no, no, I can convince you to carry on. Don't worry, we'll get through this together. And you maybe had to fight to allow people to allow you to stop.

8:22Georgia Hunter Bell: I actually think that people were quite understanding. I think that I had come to graduate in the university system so the next step was either you go professional or you get a proper job so I wasn't good enough to be professional but you were though at a certain point but you were because you are yeah I am now but the competitor you are now was in you then sure so I wonder whether it was actually just something that was psychological rather than physical I think it was psychological it was probably a mix of both you know physically I wasn't in my best shape But I do think the athlete I am now is very different to the athlete I was then.

9:01Georgia Hunter Bell: And I do think having that benefit of hindsight and, you know, seeing what life's like away from running really gave me a bigger hunger for when I step on the track. And I think that I go into races having this unique perspective of knowing what the other side of life is like and knowing how lucky I am to be there, but also knowing life is bigger than just running in circles. So it gives me this kind of like freedom as well as the hunger. And I think that mix just works really well for racing. It's so interesting because I think that people sometimes look at high performance as total obsession.

9:38And if you're not totally obsessed, then you're not fully committed. And if you're not fully committed, then you won't get the results. You know, we we criticize and deride elite athletes who have anything else going on in their life apart from running or playing football or playing golf. but what you're saying is actually having other things in your life is the very thing that can

9:55Georgia Hunter Bell: make you a better athlete I really do believe that and I think in my training group as well we do see that I think the happiest athletes are the best athletes doesn't mean that you know we're not all in when we go to training or how we live our life but you do need to have strong relationships around you that support you you do need to have things that you're excited about off the track so that you can switch off completely and then turn it on for the big moments you can't keep that intensity throughout every aspect of your life and expect to peak in these olympic or world championship moments should we carry on the conversation sitting down out of the wind yeah i mean it's not a problem for my hair the hair yeah i might have something to say about it um so i'm just interested in you know the the walk away moment did you um did you speak to a sports psychologist or a therapist or a counselor or anything at that point i had seen it took a while but I think that period where I got home and I was really struggling, I saw a therapist for about five months.

10:53Georgia Hunter Bell: And it was working every week with them just to kind of work back from who I am without running and trying to find purpose of my day-to-day. So it was kind of almost reconciling with the fact that I was going to move away from running, but strangely it kind of pushed me back into it because it just made me see that I wanted to go back to being an athlete, if not a professional athlete, but just someone who runs all the time because it's my identity. What did they say that really helped you to realise how you truly felt? It was just kind of understanding what life looked like away from it and nothing really seemed to excite me that much.

11:37Georgia Hunter Bell: And then even just going back to easy jogs, park runs, small things like that just got my competitive juices flowing again. And I just started to feel more like myself. And then things started to go better in my personal life as well. I started to have better relationships. I started to do better at my corporate job. And I could just really see the impact that was having on me was beneficial. And so that's why I just wanted to keep doing it. And you know, when you said you when you were really struggling, can you tell us what that looked like? Because so far, it kind of sounds like you competed, you ran, you did really well, then you had a period where it wasn't so good and thought I'm going to quit now because it's not working.

12:19Where does the struggle come in? What did that feel like and look like on a daily basis?

12:23Georgia Hunter Bell: I think I wasn't a great person, to be honest. Like when I look back, I don't think I was a very good friend. I don't think I was a very good daughter. I think I wasn't a very good employee. I wasn't, I didn't have any drive to do things well. I just wasn't a very good version of myself at all. and I think I was definitely very unhappy. Like I just remember I would go out a lot, I would not wake up in the mornings, I'd just stay in bed and just, because I wouldn't be excited for what was going to come that day and I think there was a period of about six months of that before I started to work through it in therapy and that was probably like the lowest point.

13:07And did you realise at the time, before you went to therapy, that you weren't a great friend, weren't a great daughter, or were you kind of ignoring all of that?

13:14Georgia Hunter Bell: I was kind of in my own bubble, which I think you can be when you get into a bit of a dark place because you're just thinking about yourself all the time. And it was only later. I was starting to have friction with my parents, with my friends, and at work there'd be a few things. So I did feel that there were signs, and then only when I was a little bit past of it can I look back and be like, that was just yeah that was a bad time all around don't you think you were like totally understandably a bit depressed yeah I think I I think I was I mean yeah I mean looking back it's like I I look back even like photos or talking about it sometimes people and I'm like oh I feel bad for that version of Georgia because she had all this hope and expectation for herself and it it didn't work out and you know she was really struggling through that but then I do feel kind of proud to have made it through that found who I was again and then obviously had this kind of second chapter this is what I think is so interesting because amongst all of this the disappointment the depression the issues with like not feeling that you were great going to see a therapist like there's real humility as well because there's a moment where you go right now I go back to a normal job and I think a lot of athletes early on they think well I'm now an athlete I never need to have a normal job because I'm not in that world yeah what was that moment like where you walked into an office for the first day with a lanyard around your neck and kind of clocked in for a job that wasn't being a professional competitor on a track yeah it was interesting but I was kind of excited for it because it was different and I think the role I went into I was in a tech sales job and they hire pretty much a lot of ex-athletes because it is a competitive environment.

15:04Georgia Hunter Bell: You have a quota to hit, there's leaderboards, everyone's trying to achieve the highest numbers. So it kind of translated nicely. And I think, yeah, for a little bit, I was getting fulfillment from that, but it wasn't the same as a true passion like running or your sport. So yeah, a bit of humility, but also I think quite a few transferable skills. I love the fact that you were able to relate to the clear parameters for what success and failure look like. Like you either won or you didn't. Yeah. In the office. And it's funny because it's like for some people that just wouldn't bother them. Like why would a leaderboard in the office?

15:41Georgia Hunter Bell: They just don't care. Whereas for me I was like I need to be top of that. Like I need to be the best performer this month. Like it matters that I see my name like on the top of the board. So I feel like sometimes those things are just instilled in you. And how was that period when the people that you would have been training with and competing against in the States were then going to major events? And I guess you still followed them on socials and you saw what they were doing. How did that sit with you in that time? Well, I do remember very vividly looking back at the Tokyo Olympics and seeing lots of people that I used to beat as a kid competing for Team GB.

16:19Georgia Hunter Bell: So there was Alex Bell in the 800 metres, there was Katie Snowden in the 1500. and I just remember thinking like wow like they're at the Olympics now and I used to beat them back in the day and that kind of ignited something in me to think like well if they made it then surely if I had carried on I could have made it and that was right at the time that I saw this upcomer Keely Hodgkinson get a silver medal and she was coached by my old coach at the time and I just thought that was the most incredible thing I'd seen and that's what led me to reach back out to Trev, my old coach, and say, you know, I know we broke up when I moved to America but I would love to start training again and I've got myself into decent shape on my own but I'd love to follow your plan.

17:08Georgia Hunter Bell: I know you're one of the best coaches in the world and would you kind of take me back? And lucky you did. I think this is the most interesting part of your story now because you just said I was training on my own. So you didn't ever stop running, right? I did have a period where I did. That period right when I finished college in America, that was a period where I had some time off. I look a little different. I gained a little bit of weight. I was just being a normal human. And then after about a year, I was back into running, cycling, not track running, but just 5Ks, 10Ks, runs, things to build my fitness but not not the same elite level of track no so i'm gonna have to ask for real honesty at this point right okay you pick up the phone to trevor he says okay i'll train you again yeah you go back and do which was a conversation by the way his wife thought his wife jenny who's part of the training team thought i think her exact words were hasn't that ship sailed and um trev kind of put his foot down a little bit and was like yeah you know she was really good back in the day like why not let's give it a go so we laugh about that now on the team but yeah if that conversation had gone differently I'm sure I wouldn't be sitting here with you know loads of world medals but even that is is interesting because I think sometimes people are so used to the world as they see it and the world as people see it in the world of athletics is you start young and you never leave and you get to a point where you either compete at the very, very top at an Olympics or Commonwealth for Worlds, or at that point you stop.

18:42No one's done what you've done. So I can kind of understand that her thought was, well, that ship sailed because people don't do this. Like, this is not a path that has been trodden before.

18:52Georgia Hunter Bell: I get that completely, yeah. And when she said that, like, I laughed because I was like, I would have probably had the same reaction. But I think now it's opened up our minds as a group in general, depending on, you know, who wants to get back into athletics or who, it doesn't matter what age they are, it's like, okay, let's look at the potential in your journey because everyone is just different. And this links so closely to so many things we talk about on High Performance, which is about flexible thinking, about exploring, about understanding that the world for you is unique and can be different to everyone else's journey.

19:27You know when she said, hasn't that ship sailed? Did that make you go, oh yeah, maybe it has? Or did it make you go, okay, now I'm going to show you that ship hasn't sailed?

19:36Georgia Hunter Bell: Well, luckily, they only told me that later once I won my Olympic medal. That's when they kind of shared that, which I thought was really funny. But I think at that point, I wasn't trying to necessarily make an Olympic team. I just wanted to see how far I could push my body, get back to Trev's training, which I knew was really good. And every week I could see myself improving. So it kind of went from being like, oh, I'm just going to get back to seeing how fast I can run to. maybe I can make a team to maybe I can get a medal and it just kind of escalated from there so can we talk about Georgia version 2.0 because a few years ago I had a message out of the blue from the Newcastle manager Eddie Howe oh yeah he'd left Bournemouth a few months before and he basically messaged to say he'd been listening to high performance and the period of not being a manager had been the most valuable part of his whole life I wonder what you learned in the period where you weren't an athlete that equipped you for going again?

20:37If we go back to that period of not running and working in an office, what did that do for you in a positive way?

20:44Georgia Hunter Bell: I think it just showed me that there is a world outside of the sport that you're in. And I think professional athletes, you can really be in your own bubble. And sometimes that's great. But also sometimes it means that you can really let the moments get the better of you. because say you've trained four years to make it to an Olympics and maybe that might overwhelm you. Whereas I just saw it as whatever happens, you know, I'm going to be okay and I'm just going to seize this and kind of punch above my weight and really go for it. And I think that's what it allows me to do with running. It gives me that kind of freedom that maybe others haven't been exposed to.

21:24And more joy now?

21:25Georgia Hunter Bell: Definitely more joy, yeah. But I think it's no surprise that the happier an athlete is, the better they perform. We definitely see that in track and field. And I find that at the moment I am very fulfilled with running, but I'm also just a very content person now. Hopefully, you know, you all have ups and downs, but overall, I know who I am. I have a great team and family around me. and I just go into every opportunity willing to give absolutely everything. I've got little kids, right? And it's really interesting, this conversation for me, because I see them doing sport. My daughter loves athletics.

22:03My son plays football. She dances as well. They talk all the time about fitness and training and all the other things, all the hard skills of what it takes to compete.

22:13Georgia Hunter Bell: Yeah. They don't talk about joy very often to them. That scares me with young kids because I get a lot of that, actually. Like, parents will come up to me and they'll say, oh my son's run 19 minutes for a 5k and he just really can't get past the 19 minute mark i'm like these when you're a kid you should not be thinking about time yeah you should just be focusing on the feeling of running a race winning a race and the joy of it and um i think that's probably yeah you don't want to that that thing is so important to capture the joy once that goes they're much more likely to drop out and girls in the uk have such a high dropout rate from sport I'm one of the few that made it back but I was part of that statistic obviously for a while and so I do feel like that touches a bit of a nerve when I hear they're not enjoying it So you had stopped competing the closest you came to running was park run at the weekend you were working in an office you then start training with Trevor again but you've said it wasn't to compete in Olympics or be a world champion it was just to compete again or it was just to train again when did the moment arrive where you thought okay let's go yeah i had taken my annual leave because this time i'm still you know working full time but i decided to take some annual leave to join them on training camp in south africa so to join keely and sarah and other girls in the group who are phenomenal world-class athletes and that's when it really showed me where i stacked up against It's the best in the world.

23:44And where was that?

23:45Georgia Hunter Bell: Pretty close, actually. Like, obviously, they were still, you know, beating me in reps, but I wasn't that far off. And that's when Jen and Trev both pulled me and said, OK, right, like, this is very interesting and you can run the Olympic qualifying time. Like, you can make the Olympic team. And that was all I needed to hear, to have someone that knew the sport very well, someone who I really trusted, turn to me and say, you can do this. and I think you know it's important to have that self-belief and I definitely built it from there but I also think it's very important to have people in your life telling you that you can do things I'm sure you have it as a dad where you want to let your kids know they can do anything they put their mind to but also in a way that's realistic and so when they say it to me you know they'll also tell me harshly when things are not good so I take it very seriously when they say you can do this and let's go get a medal and what's the balance like with keely and some of the other competitors who are in your group where it's like we're kind of mates and we inspire each other but i want to beat them as well how does that balance work out yeah it's really funny isn't it with me like there's been a lot of chats about it with me and keely and i i think we find it interesting because everyone else finds it so interesting of like how can you be friends when your rivals and it's like well we're definitely faster because we train together that is a hundred percent a fact like we're able to share reps in sessions whereas if it was just us on our own we would be doing that session a lot slower so we're able to be so good and I think maybe that's an interesting part of high performance like how many athletes out there would be willing to train with their rivals to get better because you kind of have to open up and be vulnerable and we're very good friends um so would you genuinely tell her everything she she knows a lot about me yeah but what about i don't know on the day of a competition you wake up and you're not feeling quite on it you wouldn't tell her i don't know like as in we had lunch together tokyo final we had lunch together that day both of us were experiencing some fun like stomach issues from the food out there and we like told each other that so i don't know i mean we'll see if it comes up again but i think racing when we step on the track it's no secret that both of us want to win so it's there's not really anything to hide there you know do you think that the original georgia would have had the same approach to her rival or do you think the period away from running has given you this freedom that's a really good question i think i probably would have been maybe a bit nicer almost like as in I'd kind of say oh you you're better than me like you go um the old Georgia I think but then maybe coming back and being like you know this is a short period of time where you're an athlete I've had a second chance like I am gonna if I feel like I can win a race I'm gonna yeah push to the line and make sure that I do my very best and I think sometimes that has really helped me in races because athletes can sometimes put themselves in a box and be thinking oh I always finish behind you or this is usually where I finish whereas I'm like I have no idea where I'm going to finish so I'm going to race like it's kind of a respect everyone fear no one mindset and after your coach said look we can aim for the Olympics obviously that was the moment for you you're now a world indoor champion you have an Olympic medal there's lots of exciting things around the corner as well yeah when you reflect on the last 18 months what was the moment where everything just made sense i think it has to be paris like paris for me was the olympic final where you know i had worked so hard to get there and pretty much every week the momentum was building and building and building and it went from being such an unlikely event to something almost so inevitable like waking up that morning I truly felt like it didn't matter how the race went, I was going to get a medal that day.

27:55Georgia Hunter Bell: Why? I just felt like coming back after such a period of time off, I was born in Paris 30 years prior. And for me, it was just such like a magical fairy tale season. And I knew I was in the shape of my life. and I just had a calmness to me that day that I just thought this is going to happen and I almost wish I could have that like moving forward forever because just yeah the mindset that I had that day and even in the home straight you know like I was fourth and it was quite a big gap and I was just like I'm getting metal like I just know I will and I did it by the skin of my teeth but for me that bronze felt like gold and just the feeling in the stadium when you know you've got like 90 ,000 people screaming around you and I looked up and saw how fast the time was as well because it was a British record and it was faster than I ever thought I'd run and it just was like, yeah, this just makes sense.

28:55And did you think back to the young Georgia struggling out in America at that point?

28:59Georgia Hunter Bell: Yeah, probably not at that point because I was just so tired. I collapsed on the floor quite soon afterwards and saw my family and stuff but then later when I had time to reflect I was like, everything has led me to this moment. And I think, yeah, the journey is important. And proud of that little kid, Georgia, who started running, but probably more proud of the young adult who struggled with, you know, finding her identity and actually was able to come back and make it happen. So if I ask you to tell me your identity now, how would you describe yourself? Yeah, that's a good question. And I mean, I think I am, I will always be a runner.

29:43Georgia Hunter Bell: Like I think if my professional career stopped tomorrow, like hopefully not the case, but I would still be going for runs all the time. I wouldn't block myself off from it how I did in the past. But I am also a cyclist, you know, like I do a lot of riding on the bike. I'm also a wife, a friend. So I just feel like I'm a lot of other things as well as the running. but I feel like, yeah, I'm more well-rounded and, like, know myself better than I ever have. Yeah. So you are a woman who runs rather than a runner who's also a woman, right? Yeah, I think so. There is a difference to those two things, I think.

30:20Georgia Hunter Bell: I agree, yeah. And I mean, I definitely, when I was younger, I had this idea that things that were hard for you were bad for you. And I now sit here with a complete understanding and your story reinforces this, that sometimes in life what is hard for you is also so good for you. Yeah, totally. And I think you kind of do need to go through those tough times to make the good times worth it. I know it's a bit of a cliche, but yeah, I think if you won a gold medal at 19 years old in the Olympics, life would be really hard afterwards. And almost like the journey to get to hopefully a gold medal in the Olympics one day is what makes it feel so special.

30:58Georgia Hunter Bell: It's definitely what made Paris feel special for me. and winning world championships last month was also just an accumulation of, you know, all the hard work. I think it's also cool that you vocalise that an Olympic gold is what you want. Yeah. You know, it's every... I don't think that's too much of a secret because if you ask any single track and field athlete what's the number one thing that you would want in the sport, they would say an Olympic gold. And I've had Olympic bronze. I've had world championships, silver. I've had a World Indoor Championship gold now. And so I've really had the taste of what it's like to go from being a medalist to being a champion.

31:40Georgia Hunter Bell: And yeah, that's an interesting difference that you only, I think, realise once you get it. But then you just want to keep winning and winning and winning. Like I used to think getting a medal was the best thing. And now I think I'd be pretty disappointed probably if I got a medal. That's not gold? That's not gold. so when you do pick up a medal regardless of the color how long do you allow yourself to feel the joyful not too long is the short answer because you can't get too high off the highs and too low off the lows like i think that in itself is quite a skill because it is amazing and you know after getting the medal into run winning i was able to kind of celebrate but then i had a race six days later yeah and I think you've always got to be looking forward to what's coming next we've got a long season of racing so equally if you have a bad race give yourself 24 48 hours to be sad about it to you know moan about it whatever you want to do but then you need to snap back into action quite quickly because there's work to be done we had a great interview a few years ago now with Hector Beller and he used to be a full-back for Arsenal he now plays Sorrel Betis in the ego and he said his advice for life is live like a candle and what he meant by that was when things go well the flame can't grow yeah because otherwise when things go badly the flame has to shrink right he said everything happens to you but it shouldn't affect you yeah your your flame remains steady yeah regardless of the good or the bad times but equally sometimes i feel a bit heartbroken when i have conversations with elite athletes like johnny wilkinson told me he was happy for 30 seconds after winning the rugby world cup like that's crazy that can't be the like there has to be more joy than that surely and i think you know i give myself more than 30 seconds 45 yeah i think like that perspective of having time out of running i think has been helpful because yeah i do take the moments like what the moment the period that evening or that day when you win a medal is the best time or win a race it is so fun you're seeing family and friends you're seeing your physios who have been keeping you whole seeing your coaches and like that celebration that moment is so special which is why it is so brutal if you ever miss out on a medal because of you know incidents with doping if you don't get to celebrate that moment and you retrospectively get upgraded like that's what you live for as an athlete is the those moments because they are so fleeting and yeah that's that's what's the most important thing i think and with with things like doping how do you reconcile that mentally when it's something that is totally out of your control yeah I've had my first experience of it recently I got an upgrade from last year from bronze to silver and it was a strange thing to grapple with but I think I it was okay for me to accept because I still was able to be on the podium that day but I think if I'd come forth and hadn't got to share that moment that would have been really really tough at the end of the day you just have to focus on yourself like you have to just leave it to the people that are running that to believe that they are catching people that are doing things wrong and I'm not going to let it distract from my joy and my purpose of training every day with the team and yeah we we might have you know complaints about it but what can you do I understand people want to win but I honestly you think doping is one of the strangest things because there will be athletes who the world lords yeah they're walking around with a bunch of golds and silvers and only they know in their head that none of it it must be a very odd feeling do you know what i mean absolutely all your joy comes from the fact it's real yeah exactly that goes back to the whole purpose like i felt like i was the most lost when i just didn't have purpose so having part of the struggle and the training and the losses to them when you do have that big moment that's what makes it all feel worthwhile which obviously i'm sure those people don't get that so yeah i agree with you so la 2028 is the big goal yeah um i loved it when we spoke with tom daly and he said he was only a kid when his coach said to him having the goal is actually not what matters it's the daily behaviors that get you to that goal like it's fine to have the dream like no one says you shouldn't dream about a golden la 28 yeah but the dream won't get you there you don't control the result right yeah But you do control your daily behaviours.

36:12What are the daily behaviours that you believe will get you to that gold medal in LA?

36:17Georgia Hunter Bell: Yeah, I mean, a lot of stuff. A lot of, of course, the training. So, you know, today is a day I'll have three different sessions today between gym, run and bike. So, of course, the training and doing every session to the best of your ability every time. A lot of sleep. A lot of... How many hours are we talking? I mean if I don't get nine hours of sleep I'm not able to train well I'm running on like six a night I don't know how you do that yeah I don't know how I do that how do you get nine hours sleep like do you just sleep well this is one of the things as well like you actually have to say no to a lot of stuff like no to even like going to dinner or just just anything that you think is gonna impact your sleep like the other day I was at the theater like my mom had got me a present and she actually might hear me say this and I haven't told her this but I laughed at half time it was a great performance but I was just like I'm exhausted I'm not gonna get enough sleep if I stay till the end I've had a lovely time but for me sleep is more important than me seeing part two of this so I get that lots of people won't understand that but for me it's what I have to do to be able to to train my best um so yeah of course the training of course the recovery but also just making sure that you're healthy and happy a lot of that healthy stuff comes around with making sure you're not injured there's lots of stuff you could do to prevent that not getting enough sleep not eating right and then trying to train hard it's a recipe for getting injured so that's part of the there's almost half the battle for track athletes how do you stay healthy so you're on the start line ready to go okay the next one with voxel backing team GB and Britain I'm so interested to know what it feels like to pull on the team GB kit it's so cool it's honestly so cool like going finding out that you've made the Olympic team getting the call up and then you go and have your fitting when you get all of the kit is just such an exciting day and you kind of watch this video where you have former legends that like talk to you about how significant it is to wear the kit and the legacy that you become a part of and it's just, yeah, such a special feeling, very unique.

38:29Who was the legend that spoke to you about the kit?

38:31Georgia Hunter Bell: It was Dame Jess Ennis. What did she say? She just said that, you know, wearing the kit, it is something that is not just about you, it's about something bigger than you and it goes through, like, legends that have gone before you for Team GB and it makes you really want to contribute, I think. It makes you just think, oh, like, they've been able to achieve something special, I want to do it for me, but I want to do it for the team and for the country as well. I've loved this conversation. I think your story is one of the most remarkable in world athletics. Anyone that watches this will be like rooting for you for the next couple of years, hopefully watching the progress.

39:08I suppose before we finish with some quick fire questions, if I could rewind the clock to you age 23 and I gave you a choice at this point, you either fly in the States and you carry on with your career on a linear path that you would have dreamed as a kid or you have to go through the anxiety the disappointment the depression the therapy the rebuild which would you choose i would choose my path that i've gone through now so all of the

39:37Georgia Hunter Bell: yeah option b with all of its struggles because i just think the stuff you learn along the way about life about yourself that is a way stronger person which translates to a way stronger athlete on the start line and I think if I hadn't gone through all of that and kind of built myself from the bottom up again then I wouldn't be able to get the results that I'm getting now amazing thank you so much I'm ready for some quick fire questions okay let's do it the three non-negotiable behaviors that are most important to you as an athlete or as a person your call the three behaviors that stand out okay so sleep i've mentioned that's a non-negotiable for me put it before family and friends sometimes um i think just the accountability and the discipline when i was working full-time i would still be waking up and doing my sessions and getting it done early or getting it done late and that is day on day on day which stacks over the years so just holding yourself accountable like are you actually doing the work and then three is probably that that purpose piece so like making sure that you are feeling the connection to what you're doing the purpose because then everything else is going to come and if you are in a situation be it in sport or life where you're just not feeling that purpose I think that's a non-negotiable because that's going to drive, that's like your North Star.

41:11What is the best piece of advice you've ever been given and why?

41:14Georgia Hunter Bell: It's actually not to deal with sport, if that's okay. It was during that period of time where I was really struggling and like probably the worst, yeah, six months of my life where I wasn't in a relationship and I wanted to meet someone and someone said to me, well, like, be the person that you want to meet and it made me do a bit of reflecting and thought, okay, well, I want to be with someone who's driven it's like well I'm not actually very driven at the moment like I'm kind of slacking on my commitments I want to be with someone who's has better health and I was like well I'm not really doing that I'm not working out I'm not eating healthy and it kind of made me reflect on myself and become a better version of myself which then allowed me to yeah meet a partner that yeah my husband is yeah probably one of the good things about me and And I think that really stuck with me.

42:05Georgia Hunter Bell: So, yeah, a bit of self-reflection that led to better relationships. That's cool. And that applies, by the way, to friends, colleagues. Yeah, friends, family, everything, yeah. How you act totally controls the kind of people that you attract. Exactly. What is your biggest strength? I think my perspective. Walking away, coming back. It is my biggest strength when I stand on the start line. I feel like I am fearless, but I also race freely. Your greatest weakness? I have a lot. Pick just one. I'm really, I always spill things on myself. Quite messy. Right. Like I always have to throw clothes in the wash, make a lot of crumbs.

42:45Georgia Hunter Bell: Like, yeah. Next time you're competing, I'll look for some food down your training top. And the final question to leave people reflecting on your golden rule, if you like, for living a high-performance life. I think golden rule for living a high-performance life is to find that purpose, that passion, and then be committed to being really committed and excellent at it. Don't slack off. Don't try and take shortcuts. Just that consistency every day is what will lead to, in the big moments, you being able to do your very best. So cool. I've loved that chat. And you know, when we first started talking, I thought that you went through a period where the flame went out.

43:29Georgia Hunter Bell: Yeah, it did. But it was always just burning a little bit. Yeah. and that was just that in the background yes just that tiny little spark was still there and then you just you know it's an amazing story thank you and I will be cheering at the television or maybe in the stands in LA in 2028 who knows but thank you so much for your time thank you it was great thank you thank you it was brilliant I really hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did I think it's so interesting when you speak to an elite athlete away from competition when they can actually be genuinely reflective and for Georgia to open up that it wasn't just a difficult period or a dark period, you know, she was depressed.

44:06And it was going through that difficult time. It was walking away from the sport she loved. It was not being involved in the thing that had defined her identity for so many years. That actually meant when she came back as version 2.0, as we called it in the conversation, it meant that she was able to finally have real perspective about what it takes to be an elite athlete. And after that conversation, I'll be watching very closely to see what happens in LA in 2028 and between now and then I think our story is going to be fascinating so I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did and that is us done I've loved coming down here to Crystal Palace today to meet Georgia and I have to say the Vauxhall Combo Electric made it so effortless just to take an entire podcast studio put it in the back of this awesome van and get it down here it was effortless it was easy and I really really enjoyed it and if you're interested in finding out how maybe making the switch to electric could work for you, why don't you visit your local Vauxhall dealer or search Vauxhall Van Range to see how you or your business could benefit.

45:04Vauxhall, proud partners of Team GB.