Extreme talent and ongoing determination are two essential ingredients when creating a phenomenal swimmer, such as Lucy Bell. From starting after school swim classes when she was seven, to becoming the #1 ranked swimmer in Colorado, Bell has made shocking progress with her swimming career.

Bell is a senior at Fossil Ridge High School this year and is part of Fossil’s Swim team. When Bell is not swimming for Fossil, she swims for Fort Collins Area Swim Team (FAST) where she has swam for almost 6 years.

Bell explains that she knew swimming was the perfect sport for her because, unlike most sports, sweating was not involved.

“I don’t like getting sweaty,” said Bell, “And in the water I didn’t really get any sweat. So yeah, I just stayed with that.”

Currently, Bell is ranked #1 in the state and 93rd in the nation. A few of her many impressive accomplishments include competing in the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials and receiving first place in the CHSAA Girls 5A State Championship.

However, 2021 was not Bell’s first encounter with the Olympics. Bell had qualified for the Olympic trials in the summer between her Freshman and Sophomore year. Unfortunately, COVID-19 disrupted what was supposed to be the 2020 Olympics, causing Bell to not be able to compete until 2021. Though negative at first, this turned out to be a blessing in

disguise. Between 2020 and 2021, Bell was able to continue to practice and was able to become even faster, which helped her qualify for even more events than she had originally qualified for.

“It was really cool seeing someone from our hometown represent swimming in such a big way,” said Nash Baker, a friend of Bell’s who also swims for FAST. “Olympic trials was like a really good experience for her and she was able to race against some very high level athletes… I believe she was going up against multiple Olympians.”

When it comes to balancing swimming, school, and a social life, Bell has got it mastered. What’s her secret? Time management and lots of sleep.

“I try to get as much as I can [done] like at school or like during my off periods. And then if I don’t do my homework, I just kind of do it the next morning. But I try to get a lot of sleep because if I wake up early, I don’t want to be too tired. That’s important to me,” said Bell.

One of Bell’s favorite things about swimming is the environment. Over the years, Bell has grown very close to her team, and considers her teammates to be some of her closest friends. She enjoys the duality of both environments, Fossil allowing her to have fun and FAST allowing her to focus on improving.

“Fossil is fun because it’s more about just like having fun… I don’t really care about the results as much. But then FAST I feel like is where I really like grow as a swimmer more. And my best friends are on the team so it’s always really fun to practice,” said Bell.

During the summer, Bell verbally committed to Stanford University to continue her swimming journey.

“It was like my dream school since I was like, really little. So I kind of always knew I wanted to go [there]. But I almost committed to Northwestern instead, which is pretty crazy. But I ended up still going to Stanford because I felt like it fit me better,” said Bell.

At Stanford, Bell is planning on majoring in something in the STEM world.

“I’m probably going to major in computer science. But maybe something with like environmental engineering or like, maybe even like architecture, urban planning, but probably computer science.”

When it comes to her future with swim, Bell is still unsure what may be in store for her. Despite her numerous awards and accomplishments, she prefers to tackle things as they come. “I’ll probably be done after college… Other than like competitively swimming, maybe also for like workouts and stuff, but [I’m] probably just gonna see where it goes in college and enjoy that before I think of anything bigger.” said Bell.