NASHVILLE — Mariah Bell, a newly minted national champion, needed a reminder that she has been around figure skating for a long time, somehow, someway outlasting battalions of teenagers in a sport that skews so young.
“Have I been a senior for nine years?” she asked a room of reporters late Friday night, looking incredulous and referring to the senior level of skating, which is the top level of the sport.
A sea of heads nodded back at her.
After years of surviving a demanding sport with her mental and physical toughness, and after years of watching other top skaters come and go, Bell, 25, won her first U.