Ashton Bell has become an Olympian.

The University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey senior defenseman was named officially to the 2022 Canadian Olympic Team after having centralized with Hockey Canada for the past five months.  The Bulldog captain, who was converted from a forward to defense by the UMD coaching staff prior to her third season as a Bulldog, is one of seven defenseman that will represent Canada in Beijing, China next month.

"I am so incredibly honored and grateful for the opportunity to represent Canada at the Olympic Games," said Bell Tuesday. "I am thrilled to head to Beijing with this group and to wear the Maple Leaf. This is absolutely a dream come true."

The product of Deloraine, Manitoba, Bell  was named both a 2020-21 USCHO First Team All-American and a 2020-21 CCM/AHCA Second Team All-American. Bell finished last season as the seventh-highest scoring defenseman in the nation and second highest in the WCHA with 14 points on four goals and 10 assists.  The offensive blueliner was named the WCHA's Defenseman of the Year, as well as an All-WCHA First Team selection, and also turned in a plus/minus rating of +19 over the season.

Bell will join former Bulldog All-American defenseman Jocelyne Larocque, who was named to her third Canadian Olympic Team on Tuesday.  Larocque won a gold medal with Canada in 2014 and a silver medal in 2018.

UMD now has two currently rostered team members on Olympic Teams -- in addition to Bell, Kassy Betinol has already been named to the Chinese Olympic Team and will represent the host country in Beijing.  Senior goaltender Emma Soderberg helped Team Sweden qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympics, but Sweden has not yet announced its Olympic roster.  The Bulldogs have a total of five former players so far set to suit up in the Olympics -- Gold medalist Maddie Rooney will represent the U.S. Olympic Team for a second time, while former UMD All-American Lara Stalder, a bronze medalist with Switzerland in 2014, was named to her third Olympic Team.  While standout former forward Katerina Mrázová  punched her first Olympic Games ticket by helping lead the Czech Republic through Group C in November, Alexandra Vafina looks to make her third appearance with the Russian Olympic Team.  Both Linnea Hedin and Michelle Lowenhielm still await their official Olympic fates with Sweden -- it would mark Lowenhielm's second call-up to the Olympics and blueliner Hedin's first.

Bell becomes the fifth-ever Bulldog player to be named to the Canadian Olympic Team, and follows in the footsteps of former Canadian Olympian and Bulldog great Haley Irwin as the last Canadian UMD player to have collegiate eligibility to return to following an Olympic year. (Irwin made the 2010 Olympic team, won gold with Canada in Vancouver as a junior at UMD and then played the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons).  In addition to Bell, Irwin and Larocque, former UMD defenseman Brigette Lacquette earned silver with Canada in 2018, and UMD All-American and four-time Canadian gold medalist Caroline Ouellette was the program's first-ever Canadian Olympian, with a  golden span that ran from 2002, 2006, 2010 and finished in 2014.  Current UMD assistant coach Laura Schuler coached Canada to a silver medal in 2018 after earning bronze as a player in the 1998 Olympics

This will also mark the fourth-consecutive Winter Olympics that UMD has had two or more players skate for the Canadian Olympic Team.