Biography

BIOGRAPHY
Born 6th December 1964, at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus.
Attended George Watsons College (Edinburgh) and Stams Ski Gymnasium (Austria).
Resides in Big Sky, Montana, USA.
Married with two daughters.

Skiing career
Started skiing aged 6 with Karl Fuchs’ Struan House Ski School, Cairngorm, Scotland.
Began ski-racing aged 8 with White Hare Ski Club and Scottish Ski Club, later with Kandahar Ski Club.
1981-95: represented Great Britain on the World Cup circuit, and achieved 6 top ten placings, more than any other male British skier.
Best placing – 5th in the 1986 World Cup downhill, Åre, Sweden.
Martin Bell’s 8th place in the downhill at the 1988 Winter Olympics is a British Record for any male downhill skier.
4-time Olympian (1984, 1988, 1992, 1994).
Represented Great Britain at 5 World Championships (1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993).
Winner of 4 British Championships overall titles.
Winner of the 1996/7 Jeep King of the Mountain professional downhill series (with Steven Lee, Australia, in the team event).
In endurance racing, Martin set the lap record at the 1998 “24 Hours of Aspen ” (with Graham Bell), and was runner-up at the 2002 “50k of Coronet Peak ” (with Graham Bell and Andrew Freshwater).
On artificial ski slopes, Martin won the All-England Championships 6 times between 1988 and 1994, and the British Championships overall title in 1985.
In grass skiing, Martin competed in the 1987, 1997 and 1999 World Championships. His best performance was 10th in giant slalom in 1999.

Other sports
In 1982, Martin competed in the BBC's "Junior Superstars", where he won the canoeing and steeplechase events. In 2003 he took part in "Superstars", winning the mountainbiking and placing second in the "gym tests", behind Du'aine Ladejo.
At the age of 12, Martin competed in the Scottish Orienteering Championships. In 1999, he successfully completed the London Triathlon (Olympic distance).

In addition to skiing, Martin enjoys football, golf, ice hockey, mountainbiking, snowboarding and tennis.

Current career

Media
Martin is the Sports Editor of the Big Sky Weekly (www.thebigskyweekly.com) and the Equipment Editor of Daily Mail Ski and Snowboard magazine (www.metrosnow.co.uk).
He is the Managing Editor of Snowfinder United States of America.
He has also written articles for The Guardian, the Observer, the Sunday Times, Country Life, Rocky Mountain News, Vail Beaver Creek Magazine, the Vail Daily and Taos News.
Martin has commentated on televised ski-racing for BBC (Ski Sunday and Olympic Grandstand), Eurosport and currently works with Channel Four skiing.
He also commentated on the 24 Hours of Aspen for ESPN with Bob Beattie.

Coaching
Martin is a coach at The Yellowstone Club, Montana.
He also runs camps for children in Zermatt with Powder Byrne, and courses for adults in Davos with Davos Dreams.
Martin has run ski technique clinics for Ski Club of Great Britain, Ski Independence and First Choice, in Tignes, Crested Butte, Kitzbühel and Saalbach.
Martin has hosted corporate ski trips for many different companies, including investment banks, retail chains, and publishing corporations.
1999-2005: worked as “UK Ski Ambassador” for Vail Resorts International Sales and Marketing Dept.
2002-2005: worked for Golden Peak Ski School in Vail, Colorado.
2005/06: worked for the Ernie Blake Ski School in Taos, New Mexico.


Videos
Martin has written and presented three instructional videos:
Let’s Go Skiing (with Martin Bell and Annabel Croft) – 1990
Carving Skills – 1997
Conquer Powder and Bumps (with Martin Bell and Pat Sharples) – 1998

Books
British Ski Federation Guide to Better Skiing (1986) – contributor
Let’s Go Skiing (1990) – author