BELL LAP: Princeton University men’s heavyweight rower Theo Bell catches his breath after a race this spring. Bell enjoyed a big senior season this year for the Tigers, helping the Princeton varsity eight take third in its grand final at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships. The top boat’s performance helped the Tigers place second overall in the Ten Eyck Team Trophy standings. The recently graduated Bell, a native of Salisbury, England, who has rowed for Great Britain’s U23 team, is headed to Oxford to do research while pursuing a spot on Great Britain’s senior boat. He is hoping to compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics. (Photo by Row2K, provided courtesy of Princeton Athletics)
By Justin Feil
Theo Bell was already an accomplished rower when he came to Princeton University in 2022.
He’d been just the fourth athlete to compete for Great Britain’s U23 team while in school at Eton College. He held tight to his school experiences as he joined the Princeton heavyweight crew program.
“I think that lasted about a week,” said Bell, who hails from Salisbury, England. “And since then, I just could never have imagined how much I would have cared about and enjoyed Princeton and Princeton rowing specifically.”
Bell came in with a bang, rowing in the Tigers men’s heavyweight varsity eight boat that took third in its grand final at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships that spring. He went out on an even bigger high, as he rowed in the Tigers’ varsity eight boat for the fourth straight year and its bronze finish at IRA championship regatta this year bookended his career and helped the Princeton program place second nationally in the Ten Eyck Team Trophy standings with the 3V also taking bronze and the 2V boat winning gold.
“They’re very different bronzes,” said Bell, who rowed in the six seat for the top boat this spring. “When I was a freshman, the rest of the team wasn’t as deep and so we were the only boat getting a medal; this year the 2V and 3V both got a medal. I think our race this year was a pretty exciting race. We were all in it right up until the end so it really felt like we could have got anywhere from first to fourth right up until the end. But it was a great race to go out on.”
Bell’s rowing finale only added to his personal legacy. He was also one of six finalists for Princeton’s William Winston Roper Trophy, which is given annually to a Princeton senior man of high scholastic rank and outstanding qualities of sportsmanship and general proficiency in athletics. Bell, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major, won the department’s George J. Mueller Award, given to a senior who has combined high scholarly achievement with quality performance in intercollegiate athletics.
“We’re gonna miss him for sure,” said Princeton head coach Greg Hughes. “He also has great physical capacity and is an amazing boat mover, but it’s his leadership, his personality, what he brings to the energy of the group that I will miss. What is great about our team is when you have someone like that around, and they move on, what I have seen is that there’s somebody else that was inspired by that and ready to step into that role. They’ll do it their own way, but there’s shoes to fill. I think we’ve got some feet around to fill them.”
Bell, though, is a rare talent. He earned a spot in the varsity eight boat as a freshman along with fellow freshman Marcus Chute. They came in after rowing on Great Britain’s U23 team before Princeton and were together again in a pair for Great Britain last summer.
“They have both been in that varsity for four years,” said Hughes.
“In my time I would say that there might be four or five that have done that, so it happens, but it takes, especially on a team that is as deep and as strong as ours has been, it requires a special talent, a generational talent to be a part of that crew for four years.”
Bell attributes his fast start to his solid experience coming into college. It gave him a leg up. But he considers himself fortunate to have been able to join a 1V boat that went on to win bronze in his first season.
“It definitely made it easier that I’d done under-23s the year before and so I think that made the coaches a bit more inclined to give me some chances,” said Bell. “And I think we just got lucky with the group of guys we had in the boat that year. I felt like it really clicked and we sort of in some ways performed beyond what our individual talents were, like more than the sum of our parts. So that’s pretty special.”
Bell became a staple in the boat and set the bar high with his example. Princeton knew it had a special rower from that first year.
“With Theo in particular, he wasn’t just a part of it, he’s been the backbone of our varsity eight for the last four years,” said Hughes. “When he came in as a freshman, from the very beginning of his career, he was setting a standard — not just with his physical ability, but also his maturity, his athletic maturity. He understood what the boat was doing. He knew how to communicate it in a way that other athletes in the boat could act on and respect. And I think when you see somebody who’s an 18- or 19-year-old kid stepping into a program and immediately garnering the respect of seniors and juniors, it speaks to special leadership qualities for sure.”
Bell has proved it over and over. Success has followed him. He was part of the Ladies’ Plate champion boat at the 2024 Henley Royal Regatta. He helped to raise the standard for the Princeton program, but he attributes the growth to beginning with others when he was a freshman. He’s enjoyed sharing his passion for rowing with a different group of teammates in the 1V boat each year. Others have picked up on his example and that has helped to raise expectations. This year’s success wasn’t as much a surprise as a result of the development of
the program.
“We’ve grown, to the point now where like even guys in the 5V are just super invested in the team and getting faster and that’s sort of what shows up in the results,” said Bell. “I think a lot of credit’s due to the senior class when I was a freshman. I think they really had some guys in there like Jelmer Bennema and Nate Phelps who really sort of turned it around and put a lot of belief in Greg.”
Hughes admired what he saw out of Bell. The day in and day out habits and characteristics spread among the rest of the team. Bell was his own toughest coach, according to Hughes.
“He drives himself and sets goals for himself and demands quality from himself far more than I ever did,” said Hughes. “And I think that’s part of what makes the rest of the team appreciate and respect him. It’s like when he’s asking for something from the team, like he’s gonna do it twofold. And the way that he encourages others, it’s not forceful. It’s inspiring and he brings people in,
he brings people up, he doesn’t call them out. I think that’s a special quality in a leader on a team.”
Injuries, including one to Bell, thwarted some consistency last year, but he always felt this year’s group had a lot of potential. The sophomore class emerged and new assistant Sergio Espinoza brought energy to the program. They were on track and then had a small hiccup when the 1V boat placed second at Eastern Sprints. Bell was one of the steadying influences to help them respond at nationals with a strong bronze finish to help the program finish second to Washington.
“Sprints, there’s a bit more obvious pressure on us,” said Bell.
“We were the No. 1 seed coming in, and every other every other boat had won and so there’s a bit more pressure just to go out and win. So I think at the nationals we were just trying to just row our best race and see what happened and we just had a better race.”
It was part of a strong finish to his Princeton experience. The Roper award nomination and Mueller honor just added to the recognition of his talents.
“It was just great to receive those awards,” said Bell. “I feel it’s always kind of hard to award individual prizes in rowing where I have never raced for Princeton by myself. So I think that’s not the whole picture, but obviously it’s an honor, and I think it’s great for the whole team. To see rowers out there in general, it’s just a good thing.”
Bell isn’t done rowing yet. He’ll do some research at Oxford while pursuing a spot on Great Britain’s senior boat. He is hoping to compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics that will be held in Los Angeles, bringing him back to California where his Princeton rowing career came to a strong ending.
“Finishing up the IRAs and just having to say goodbye to it all is definitely one of the hardest things I’ve done,” said Bell. “It’s very sad, but I mean it’s good it’s sad in a way because it means it’s been a meaningful and special time. I think it’s completely blown out of the water anything I could have imagined.”