With personal best in worlds short, Mariah Bell aging like a fine wine

In women’s singles skating, where youth has been served over the last 30 years, it is easy to think of a 25-year-old as a woman of a certain age.

So it was a big talking point in January when, at 25, Mariah Bell became the oldest U.S. women’s champion in 95 years and again in February when she became the oldest U.S. woman to compete in Olympic singles in 94 years, finishing 10th.

Now here we are in late March, less than a month before Bell’s 26 birthday, and she is doing the fine wine thing, getting better as time passes.

Call it aging gracefully, which describes Bell’s fluid, elegant skating in Wednesday’s short program at the World Figure Skating Championships in Montpellier, France.

In opening the final competition of a long season – perhaps the final competition of her lengthy career? – Bell had her highest short program score ever and her highest finish ever, third place, in any program at a global championship.

“I absolutely think I’m getting better,” Bell said. “As long as you want to and are dedicated, you can continue to improve.”

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It took 10 tries at the U.S. Championships for Bell to win any program, let alone the title. It took seven seasons of skating internationally for her to make the Olympics. It took three seasons for her to get a new short program personal best.

This score, 72.55, was more than a point better than her 71.26 from 2019 worlds. She improved the score despite one mistake, the second jump of her triple-triple combination being judged one-quarter turn short.

Going into Friday’s free skate, Bell trails reigning Olympic bronze medalist Kaori Sakamoto of Japan, whose 80.32 also was a personal best, and Loena Hendrickx of Belgium, who had 75.00