Earl Bell (athletics)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olympic medal record
Men's Athletics
Bronze	Los Angeles 1984	Pole Vault

Earl Holmes Bell (born August 25, 1955 in Ancón, Panama) is a former pole vaulter from the United States, who won the bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. Four years later, at his last Olympic appearance, he ended up in fourth place at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. He's a former world record holder, and a 2002 inductee into the USATF Hall of Fame.

A resident of Jonesboro, Arkansas (Craighead County), Bell is one of the most renowned U.S. men’s pole vaulters and coaches, a three-time Olympian (1976, 1984 and 1988), and five-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) record holder. He was the U.S. national champion in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s – a remarkable three-decade achievement for an athlete. After turning to coaching by founding Bell Athletics in Jonesboro, he was named the 1998 National Olympic Coach of the Year by the U.S. Olympic Committee. In 2004, Bell Athletics alone produced half of the U.S. Olympic pole-vaulting team.

His father William K. Bell was a medical doctor who had attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (UA). Bell came from a pole-vaulting family and started vaulting in his back yard with homemade poles and pits almost from the time he could walk. The family moved to Jonesboro in 1960, and Bell entered Arkansas State University (ASU) in 1973, having been recruited by the ASU coach, Guy Kochel. He majored in accounting, graduating with a BS in 1988. At ASU, Bell distinguished himself early, as the 1975 ASU yearbook stated when looking back on the year’s athletic achievements: "Earl Bell, only a freshman last spring, was showing a lot of potential."

Soon after that, he began collecting his twelve first-place championships, which include the NCAA Outdoor pole vault in 1975, 1976, and 1977; the NCAA Indoor pole vault in 1975 and 1976; the 1975 Pan American Games; the U.S. Outdoors in 1976, 1984, and 1990; and the U.S. Indoors in 1980, 1984, and 1987. Bell set the world record for men’s pole vault on May 29, 1976, at the U.S. Track and Field Federation (USTFF) meet in Wichita, Kansas, with a jump of 5.67 meters (18' 7.25"), which he held until Dave Roberts, also an American, jumped 5.70 meters the following month.

Bell qualified for his first Olympic Games in 1976 at Montreal, where he finished in sixth place on a rain-soaked track. The U.S. government prohibited American athletes from participating in the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow after the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan.

Bell again set the American record with his jump of 5.80 meters (19' 0.25") in San Jose, California, on June 9, 1984. That summer, the Olympic Games were held in Los Angeles, California. There, Bell tied for the bronze medal after vaulting 5.60 meters (18' 4.5"). Upon his return to his hometown that year, Jonesboro honored him by rededicating the city’s community center in his name.

Bell kept adding to his accolades, winning the bronze medal in the 1986 Goodwill Games held in Moscow and the silver medal in the 1987 World Indoors; he just missed another Olympic medal by taking fourth place in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. He is still listed in the top twenty Millrose Games athletes in Millrose victories, with his six wins topping such legends as Glenn Cunningham, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Carl Lewis.

In the fall of 1991, Bell founded and constructed Bell Athletics in Jonesboro. Located in an indoor facility at 4916 Highway 226, it quickly became a mecca for pole vaulters. Bell’s subsequent success as an instructor was spotlighted when he was named the 1998 National Olympic Coach of the Year by the U.S. Olympic Committee, a recognition which is particularly remarkable considering that he coaches a single event. Bell was inducted into the U.S. National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2002.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Bell Athletics alone produced half of the U.S. Olympic pole vault team. He currently works with Olympian and current American record holder Jeff Hartwig, Olympians Kellie Suttle, Jillian Schwartz, Derek Miles, and Chad Harting.

[edit] References

• Bell Athletics
• USATF - Hall of Fame