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Georgia Hunter Bell, Britain’s Olympic 1500m bronze medallist, has revealed she no longer goes online before her races because of the “really dark side of social media”. Eilish McColgan was subject to a wave of body shaming abuse this week with people posting that she “looks like a skeleton” and had anorexia and Hunter Bell called for more to be done to protect sportswomen.
The 31-year-old was one of the feelgood stories of 2024 as she went from her full-time job in cybersecurity to the podium in Paris, smashing the British 1500m record by running 3min 52.61sec along the way. But she said her success has led to her being targeted more.
Asked whether social media could be a quite a nasty place, Hunter Bell said: “It definitely is. I have had to get quite a thick skin quite quickly, ever since last summer. The majority of people are really supportive but there is a really dark side of social media where people write things about you, about your body, about how you look, about what they think of you, your performance. It’s hard when they’re directed to you.
“Sometimes I’ll have people direct messaging me things and it is something that does need to stop. I know Eilish has spoken about it. It is a really tough one, because it drains a lot of your energy. You only have so much and when you’re trying to focus on winning races, it’s tough to respond to every comment and look at them.”
Asked about whether athletics needed to adopt the AI threat matrix used by the Women’s Tennis Association to stop harassment on social media and in public, Hunter Bell said abuse is “definitely something that needs to stop”.
“I try to just see it as a compliment almost. That’s what my husband, George, tells me to do. Because, when you get to a certain level, people think they can say what they want, that you’re fair game. It’s not nice, but it just proves people have got something to be angry about.
“I might do a post in the morning if I’ve got a race and then I won’t go on social media all day. Because you can see something and it can just really affect you and hit you in a strange spot.”
Hunter Bell is the headline name in the British team for the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, which start on Thursday evening. After quitting her day job to become a professional athlete – having initially taken a sabbatical in May to train full-time for the Olympics – she believes she is in shape to win her first gold medal.
“After Paris, I thought, ‘I owe it to myself just to see what I’m capable of over these next four years in the run up to LA,’” she said. “Luckily, work was very understanding. They had a sweepstake, apparently, about whether I would come back or not.
“When I left in May, they said, ‘Oh, well, you know, even if you get a medal, we’ll still want you back’. I didn’t think at that point I would get a medal, so I said, ‘I’ll definitely be back’. And then they were tuning in with everyone. They did watch parties and stuff together and they were just super supportive. They understood that it was very much a following-a-dream thing.”
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Training full-time has allowed Hunter Bell to focus on a proper strength programme for the first time, as well as allowing her to recover fully between sessions. But she knows that there is now a target on her back, starting this week in the Netherlands.
She said: “It’s quite fun being the underdog, but now I’m going into it with the new challenge of being expected to win. That is different, so I’m adjusting to it. Every athlete, once they have their breakthrough, it’s almost the second year which is more telling of your capability, physically, but also mentally, whether you can back it up.”
Hunter Bell also credits her training partner, Keely Hodgkinson, who will miss these championships through injury, for helping her with the transition.
“She is such a good person to discuss it with. It’s mainly a mindset shift, and she worked with a sports psychologist to change that mindset from seeing yourself as a medallist to seeing yourself as a winner.
“It’s something that I’m going to explore this year as well. You have to think like a gold medallist to make it happen when the margins are so small.”
