I CAN HACK IT
I spend my days trying to stop professional hackers but I’m taking a break to fulfill my Paris 2024 Olympics dream
The athlete is not the only famous face in the family
GEORGIA BELL goes from the cyber-security front line to the athletics start line this weekend.
The Brit, 30, has had an unorthodox route back into athletics after taking an extended break in 2017 to complete her political science studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
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South London-based Bell has had an outstanding indoor season, running a personal best of 4:03.22 for the 1500 metres this month in Stockholm.
And she heads to the Glasgow World Indoor Championships as the fourth-quickest female within the 31-athlete field.
But she has had to take a leave of absence from her day-job trying to stop professional hackers.
Bell, who runs for Belgrave Harriers, said: “I have a nine-to-five. I work in cyber security software in London.
“Luckily a lot of it is working from home which cuts out a two-hour commute each day and allows me to train in the mornings and evenings.
“I’ve been doing that for the past kind of year-and-a-half. It’s a lot to manage certainly.
“Things might change going up into the summer with the Olympics. At the moment, it’s just a big juggling act to make it all happen.
“We use machine learning and AI to plug into organisations and see how they are getting hacked basically.
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“So it’s very interesting – we work with companies all over the world. It’s a booming business.
“A lot of times companies come to us after they have had a cyber-attack. They get funding and need to get something in to protect themselves. But we try to be proactive rather than reactive.
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“It would be a big deal to walk away from it, but obviously the opportunity is very unique this year with Paris.”
Bell is trained by Trevor Painter, who is the mastermind behind the progression of Keely Hodgkinson, the Olympic and two-time world 800 metres silver medallist.
The middle-distances in Britain right now, for the men and women, are crazily competitive and qualifying for the Paris Games will be a challenge.
Bell, whose dad is ITN political journalist Andy Bell, runs in heats on Friday and she added: “We’re trying to work out what distance athlete I am. At the moment the time I’m closest to is the 1500 metres.
“But when we get to June, depending what the line-ups look like, we are not ruling out the 5k or the 800 metres.
"So, it will be a bit of experimenting over the next few months. If you’d asked me four months ago I’d never have said yes about going to Paris.
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“Now I feel like the goalposts are really changing. We weren’t expecting to see the amount of improvement that we have had in such a short time.
“So definitely I’m going to be aiming to go to the Olympics this summer for sure.”