Martin Bell, Downhill Racer (Bonus Episode #14)

In this Ski Podcast Special, we feature Martin Bell, who raced at downhill for Great Britain in the 1980s and 1990s.

His racing career took in 4 Winter Olympics, 160 World Cup races (with 7 top-ten results) and his 8th at Calgary in 1988 remains the best placing by a British male skier at the Olympics.

Intersport Ski Hire Discount Code
Save money on your ski hire by using the code ‘SKIPODCAST’ at intersportrent.com, or simply take this link for your discount to be automatically applied at the checkout.

• Martin is now based in Vail, Colorado
• In 1995 Martin took place in the Pro Downhill tour with Steve Lee
• Previously Martin lived in Big Sky, Montana
• Martin's daughter Reece is racing slalom for Team GB
• Martin's younger brother is Graham Bell, who we've interviewed for the podcast several times before, most recently about his appearance in 'Dancing on Ice' (6:00)
• Martin represented Team GB at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo 1984, Calgary 1988, Albertville 1992 and Lillehammer 1994 (9:30)
• Check out Inception to see where Martin and Graham stayed for Calgary
• Martin and Graham appeared on The Wogan Show with David Vine before the Games
• You can listen to our chat with Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards in Episodes 29 and 30
• Martin learned to ski at Hillend in Edinburgh and at the Karl Fuchs Ski School (15:00)
• At 14 he moved to Austria to Ski Gymnasium Stams, where he was joined by Emma Carrick-Anderson and Paul Hourmont
• Martin shadowed Konrad Bartelski when he first joined the Alpine team
• He regularly trained with Canadians such as Todd Brucker and Rob Reid
• Martin's 11th in the Super G in Leukerbad in 1988 is the best result by a Brit in the discipline
• We interviewed Dave Ryding previously on the podcast in Episode 54 and Episode 57 (25:00)