Graham Bell (born 4 January 1966) is a former Olympic skier who is also a TV presenter, adventurer and journalist. He has presented several

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...

shows with Ed Leigh including ''High Altitude'' in 2009 and ''

Ski Sunday ''Ski Sunday'' is a weekly magazine-style television show covering winter sports, broadcast on BBC Two in the United Kingdom on Sundays in a late afternoon or an early evening timeslot. It began in 1978 and is currently presented by Ed Leigh an ...

'' more recently. Highlights included Graham tackling the Arctic Circle Race; a

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a m ...

race in

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

; and surviving a night in a snow-hole without food, water or a

sleeping bag A sleeping bag is an insulated covering for a person, essentially a lightweight quilt that can be closed with a zipper or similar means to form a tube, which functions as lightweight, portable bedding in situations where a person is sleeping o ...

. He set a personal best top speed on skis of . In January 2017 Bell set a World Record for towed speed skiing 189.07kmh behind a Jaguar F-Pace in Sweden.

Biography

Bell was born on the Akrotiri

Royal Air Force station This list of Royal Air Force stations is an overview of all current stations of the Royal Air Force (RAF) throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. This includes front-line and training airbases, support, administrative and training statio ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

in 1966, the son of pilot Rod Bell and teacher Jean Bell. Graham's love of skiing started at age 5 when his father was posted to

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. He learned to ski in the

Cairngorm Mountains The Cairngorms () are a mountain range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland closely associated with the mountain Cairn Gorm. The Cairngorms became part of Scotland's second national park (the Cairngorms National Park) on 1 September 2003. Althou ...

and Hillend dry slope. By the time the family moved to

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

(where his father was posted), Graham and his brother

Martin Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

were both racing full-time on the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

circuit.

Career

Athletic career

Graham Bell and his brother

competed for Britain throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Graham took a silver medal at the World Junior Ski Championships in 1984 and represented Great Britain at five

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

in Sarajevo 1984, Calgary 1988, Albertville 1992, Lillehammer 1994 and Nagano 1998. Bell achieved 12th place in the infamous

Hahnenkamm Hahnenkamm (means "comb (anatomy), comb") may refer to *Hahnenkamm (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft), a federation of municipalities in Bavaria, Germany *Hahnenkamm, Greenland, a mountain in the Stauning Alps, Greenland *Hahnenkamm, Kitzbühel, a mountain ...

Race in

Kitzbühel Kitzbühel (, also: ; ) is a town rights, medieval town situated in the Kitzbühel Alps along the river Kitzbüheler Ache in Tyrol (state), Tyrol, Austria, about east of the state capital Innsbruck and is the administrative centre of the Kitzbüh ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Television career

After retiring as a professional ski racer in 1998, Graham started his television career at

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

commentating live on the World Cup Ski Circuit for two years, before moving over to an in-vision role on ''Ski Sunday''. Graham was part of the ''Ski Sunday ''team which won a

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

award in 2002. He has presented and commentated on the

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...

. Away from the mountains, Graham is the presenter of the BBC's World Championship Series

triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the ...

coverage. He has worked on the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

for ITV, and in 2009 competed in the

Fastnet Race The Fastnet Race is a biennial offshore yacht race organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) of the United Kingdom with the assistance of the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes and the City of Cherbourg in France. The race is named after th ...

with Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss, filming, interviewing and presenting as well as working as an active crew member. Other TV credits include: ''

The Gadget Show ''The Gadget Show'' is a British television series which focuses on consumer technology. The show, which was broadcast on Channel 5, is presented by Ortis Deley, with reports from Georgie Barrat and Jon Bentley. Originally a thirty-minute ...

'', ''

Through the Keyhole ''Through the Keyhole'' is a British comedy panel game show created by the TV producer Kevin Sim and originally presented by David Frost, Sir David Frost in the studio and Loyd Grossman on location. The location presenter explores celebrities' h ...

'', '' Celebrity Eggheads'', ''Market Kitchen'', ''

Ready Steady Cook ''Ready Steady Cook'' is a BBC daytime TV cooking game show. It debuted on 24 October 1994 and the last original edition was broadcast on 2 February 2010. The programme was hosted by Fern Britton from 1994 until 2000 when celebrity chef Ainsley ...

'' and travel shows including ''Wish You Here''. Since retiring from competition Graham has continued to test his competitive instinct. In 2003 he competed in the return of BBC1's '' Superstars'' against some of the country's top sportsmen. He achieved fourth place in the final, the best placed non-current athlete. Graham has competed in numerous triathlon competitions and 24-hour

mountain biking Mountain biking (MTB) is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability ...

events. He regularly rides the grueling Etape du Tour cycle race. In 2009 Bell took part in the BBC2 series ''High Altitude'', where participants took part in death-defying stunts such as 'summit hopping' and glacier climbing. For a time, Graham was International Performance Director for The Ski & Snowboard Federation. He is a patron of The British Ski Academy. In 2021, Bell took part in the thirteenth series of ''

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series broadcast from 2006 to 2014 and then from 2018 to 2025. It was presented by Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern. Other previous hosts include Phillip Schofield and Christine Lampard. The series ...

'' partnering

Karina Manta Karina Manta (born March 20, 1996) is an American former competitive ice dancer. Early life Manta was born on March 20, 1996, in Olympia, Washington. She began figure skating in 2002. Career Manta previously competed in ice dance with Jonat ...

. They were the second couple to be eliminated.

Charity work

Graham is a patron of several UK charities including the DisabilitySnowsportUK, Snow Camp.

Personal life

Bell is married and, with his wife Sarah, has two children, Louis and Lottie, who are also keen skiers. In 2018, Graham Bell attended the Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) alpine ski championships and completed the Super-G as a forerunner. He beat ‘Robbo’ by 11 seconds, whilst carrying no poles, holding a camera, and commentating. In March 2018, immediately after the RLC Championships, Graham Bell hosted a heliskiing week in Alagna, Italy.

Notes and references

External links

Graham Bell page
at BBC Sport Academy {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Graham 1966 births British male alpine skiers Scottish male alpine skiers British television presenters People of Greek Cypriot descent Living people Skiers from Edinburgh Sportspeople from Yorkshire BBC sports presenters and reporters Akrotiri and Dhekelia people Olympic alpine skiers for Great Britain Alpine skiers at the 1984 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1988 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1992 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1998 Winter Olympics