"Age is literally a number," said US figure skater Mariah Bell, who at the grand old age of 25 will become the oldest woman to compete for the US women's skating team in 94 years when she takes to the ice at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Bell comes into the Games in great form, having finally won her first US nationals in January, at the ninth time of asking - becoming the second oldest woman to win the US title.
"It means nothing," Bell told Olympic broadcaster NBC.
"If you have a dream, there is no limit on the time you have to achieve that dream, for sure."
It is fair to say that figure skating. - and the rest of the Olympics - have moved on since British figure skater Edgar Syers became the oldest Olympic medalist in figure skating, age 45, when he won bronze with his wife Madge Syers at the 1908 Olympics in London.
Bell will not be the oldest Olympian on show in Beijing, that's for sure. She is not even the oldest among Team USA's 222-strong team of athletes.
That honor goes to veteran snowboarder Nick Baumgartner, who will compete at his fourth Winter Olympics having turned 40 back in December.
Baumgartner is not the oldest Olympian, though, not by a long shot.
German speed skater Claudia Pechstein will arrive in the Chinese capital aged 49 and ready to make history.
Pechstein will become only the second athlete to qualify for eight Winter Olympics following Japan's ski jumper Noriaki Kasai and the first woman to rack up eight Games appearances.
The five-time Olympic champion and nine-time Olympic medalist who will take part in the mass start event will celebrate her 50th birthday two days after the flame goes out in Beijing.
"Every day is harder to get motivated, especially when you feel not so great and the results aren't coming along," Pechstein said, "but I'm still proud of myself. I can still compete with the world's younger girls.
"Almost everybody says to me, 'It's amazing you're still competing on this level. It's crazy,'" she said. "I like skating."
No one is expecting her to add another medal to her tally with her appearance in Beijing but the veteran German already thinks she is a winner.
"It's for me more than the gold," she said of qualifying.
The oldest female Olympian was US Virgin Islands luger Anne Abernathy who was 48 at the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002. Abernathy would have extended her record at the Turin Winter Olympics four years later but was injured before her event.
Older heads have long turned heads with their performances at the Winter Games and arguably none more so than 13-time medalist Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway.
The Nordic skier became the oldest individual Winter Olympic gold medalist at the Sochi 2014 Games at the ripe old age of 40 when he won the 10-kilometer biathlon sprint.
He was embraced at the finish line by Norway's record Olympic medal winner Bjoern Daehlie, the cross-country skiing legend who won 12 medals.
"I always forget that [I'm 40]. I feel like I'm 20. My age is perfect," Bjoerndalen said at the time of his historic win. "I am in super form. I prepared well for this and I am feeling strong."
He was probably right. Bjoerndalen added a 13th to his personal tally with gold in the mixed relay in Russia.
The Norwegian took the record as the oldest individual gold medalist from Canadian skeleton racer Duff Gibson, who had won gold at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics aged 39.
Team work makes the dream work, as they say, and it is little surprise that there have been even older medalists when it comes to sports that are not individual.
Women's ice hockey veteran Danielle Goyette was 40 years and 21 days when the Canadians triumphed over Sweden to keep hold of their gold in 2006.
Goyette had been the flagbearer at the opening ceremony in Turin after years of being the team's standard bearer - she was top scorer for the Canadians with eight goals in six games as they won silver at Nagano in 1998 before going one better in Salt Lake City four years later.
Canada's Russ Howard capped an unexpected trip to the 2006 Winter Games by stunning Finland in the final of the curling foursome in Italy.
Not only did he make history by becoming part of the team that won Canada's first-ever curling gold but he did it having turned 50 just five days previously.
The curler was a decade older than Canada's oldest female gold medalist, with that record also coming at the Turin Games in 2006.
The curlers have long been home to some of the more experienced Olympians, and Canada has a strong history of calling on wiser heads.
Canadian curler Cheryl Bernard was the oldest woman in action at the last Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018, even though she was an alternate after retiring from competitive curling after the Sochi Games in 2014. She had kept in shape despite calling time on her curling career and was ready for the call from Team Canada.
"It's just my lifestyle. It's who I am," Bernard told The Associated Press on the eve of the Olympics in South Korea. "I feel like age is such a number these days. It's changed. I look at people now and I think, 'There's no way you're 40.'"
It was in Pyeongchang where Japan's Kasai took part in his eighth Winter Games and he too was full of youthful exuberance at the time. "I feel 20," he said in South Korea.
He was not the only athlete to prove the naysayers wrong.
"Many say it is just not possible to be successful at the Games at this age," a 45-year-old Pechstein told German agency DPA at the Pyeongchang Games four years ago. "I want to prove them wrong."
She and her fellow middle-aged athletes are doing just that - and there is nothing middling about their age-defying achievements.
Bell comes into the Games in great form, having finally won her first US nationals in January, at the ninth time of asking - becoming the second oldest woman to win the US title.
"It means nothing," Bell told Olympic broadcaster NBC.
"If you have a dream, there is no limit on the time you have to achieve that dream, for sure."
It is fair to say that figure skating. - and the rest of the Olympics - have moved on since British figure skater Edgar Syers became the oldest Olympic medalist in figure skating, age 45, when he won bronze with his wife Madge Syers at the 1908 Olympics in London.
Bell will not be the oldest Olympian on show in Beijing, that's for sure. She is not even the oldest among Team USA's 222-strong team of athletes.
That honor goes to veteran snowboarder Nick Baumgartner, who will compete at his fourth Winter Olympics having turned 40 back in December.
Baumgartner is not the oldest Olympian, though, not by a long shot.
German speed skater Claudia Pechstein will arrive in the Chinese capital aged 49 and ready to make history.
Pechstein will become only the second athlete to qualify for eight Winter Olympics following Japan's ski jumper Noriaki Kasai and the first woman to rack up eight Games appearances.
The five-time Olympic champion and nine-time Olympic medalist who will take part in the mass start event will celebrate her 50th birthday two days after the flame goes out in Beijing.
Claudia Pechstein of Germany Photo: VCG
"Every day is harder to get motivated, especially when you feel not so great and the results aren't coming along," Pechstein said, "but I'm still proud of myself. I can still compete with the world's younger girls.
"Almost everybody says to me, 'It's amazing you're still competing on this level. It's crazy,'" she said. "I like skating."
No one is expecting her to add another medal to her tally with her appearance in Beijing but the veteran German already thinks she is a winner.
"It's for me more than the gold," she said of qualifying.
The oldest female Olympian was US Virgin Islands luger Anne Abernathy who was 48 at the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002. Abernathy would have extended her record at the Turin Winter Olympics four years later but was injured before her event.
Older heads have long turned heads with their performances at the Winter Games and arguably none more so than 13-time medalist Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway.
The Nordic skier became the oldest individual Winter Olympic gold medalist at the Sochi 2014 Games at the ripe old age of 40 when he won the 10-kilometer biathlon sprint.
He was embraced at the finish line by Norway's record Olympic medal winner Bjoern Daehlie, the cross-country skiing legend who won 12 medals.
Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway Photo: VCG
"I always forget that [I'm 40]. I feel like I'm 20. My age is perfect," Bjoerndalen said at the time of his historic win. "I am in super form. I prepared well for this and I am feeling strong."
He was probably right. Bjoerndalen added a 13th to his personal tally with gold in the mixed relay in Russia.
The Norwegian took the record as the oldest individual gold medalist from Canadian skeleton racer Duff Gibson, who had won gold at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics aged 39.
Team work makes the dream work, as they say, and it is little surprise that there have been even older medalists when it comes to sports that are not individual.
Women's ice hockey veteran Danielle Goyette was 40 years and 21 days when the Canadians triumphed over Sweden to keep hold of their gold in 2006.
Goyette had been the flagbearer at the opening ceremony in Turin after years of being the team's standard bearer - she was top scorer for the Canadians with eight goals in six games as they won silver at Nagano in 1998 before going one better in Salt Lake City four years later.
Canada's Russ Howard capped an unexpected trip to the 2006 Winter Games by stunning Finland in the final of the curling foursome in Italy.
Not only did he make history by becoming part of the team that won Canada's first-ever curling gold but he did it having turned 50 just five days previously.
The curler was a decade older than Canada's oldest female gold medalist, with that record also coming at the Turin Games in 2006.
The curlers have long been home to some of the more experienced Olympians, and Canada has a strong history of calling on wiser heads.
Canadian curler Cheryl Bernard was the oldest woman in action at the last Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018, even though she was an alternate after retiring from competitive curling after the Sochi Games in 2014. She had kept in shape despite calling time on her curling career and was ready for the call from Team Canada.
"It's just my lifestyle. It's who I am," Bernard told The Associated Press on the eve of the Olympics in South Korea. "I feel like age is such a number these days. It's changed. I look at people now and I think, 'There's no way you're 40.'"
It was in Pyeongchang where Japan's Kasai took part in his eighth Winter Games and he too was full of youthful exuberance at the time. "I feel 20," he said in South Korea.
He was not the only athlete to prove the naysayers wrong.
"Many say it is just not possible to be successful at the Games at this age," a 45-year-old Pechstein told German agency DPA at the Pyeongchang Games four years ago. "I want to prove them wrong."
She and her fellow middle-aged athletes are doing just that - and there is nothing middling about their age-defying achievements.
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