MATT WESTON INTERVIEW: How Team GB’s first gold medalist of the Winter Olympics celebrated with a Margherita pizza – and where he keeps his ‘little baby’ after skeleton win
Matt Weston’s first thought upon stirring on Saturday morning was to check his bedside drawer in the athlete’s village. After the wonders of Friday evening, he had to be sure his mind had not played any cruel tricks on him during the night.
‘I had kind of tucked the medal in there, very safe, and then as soon as I woke up, I was like, “Still there, not a dream”,’ he told a few of us, having established he was in fact the Olympic skeleton champion.
‘It’s been living inside a sock for the last couple of hours because I haven’t got the boxes yet from the medal ceremony. I want to keep it as fresh as possible.
‘I’m terrified of it falling off the end of the ribbon, like I’ve seen happen to some people, and I’m cradling it half the time like my little baby.’
There was joy in Weston’s voice and that was well-earned, as was his celebratory Margherita pizza a little after midnight. Not a drop of alcohol passed his lips, but he was content enough with four track records from four descents down the icy chute in Cortina and a performance of such dominance that he became an instant study in how to ride the pressures of a moment.
If the latter has been a shortcoming of Team GB at these Winter Olympics, then Weston, 28, has proven himself their golden outlier. But even on the ice, one must strike while the iron is hot – he goes again on Sunday in the mixed event.
Matt Weston has become the golden outlier at these Winter Olympics with his miraculous performance in the skeleton
The Team GB star is holding tight to his new gold medal and has the chance to add to his haul in just days
Given the strong showings of the British women here, optimism is high that he will be checking the socks for a second medal come Monday, irrespective of whether it is Tabitha Stoecker, Freya Tarbit or Amelia Coltman doing the first run. If the pairing take gold, he will become the first Team GB winter athlete ever to leave the same Games with two.
‘I did one team race right in the last World Cup event of the year, and I think we’ve got a silver medal,’ he said. ‘We’re in a good position. I haven’t forgotten how to do it.’
It’s rare for Britain to find success in the snowy playgrounds of winter sports, which is why Team GB skeleton athletes come to prominence every four years. But there’s no fluke in the results – in the past four years, UK Sport has pumped £5.7million of lottery money into this niche pursuit across the current Olympic cycle.
Whether such a fringe sport ought to receive such backing over those more suitable to wider participation, such as snowboarding, is a valid debate.
But there is no disputing the fruits of the approach – Weston’s victory added to a golden lineage that runs through Lizzy Yarnold and Amy Williams, with Britain officially the most successful skeleton nation in the history of the Olympics on 10 medals.
Much has been made of the fact that they train on a 140metre push-track in Bath for six months of the year. Ditto that resources are rationed to the extent that Weston and his team-mate Marcus Wyatt occasionally share a bed on trips.
But the British set-up is sophisticated and advanced. In August 2022, they recruited Martins Dukurs as coach, with the Latvian holder of six world titles regarded the greatest slider in history, and that influenced Weston’s decision to carry on racing after he finished 15th at the Beijing Games of that year.
He told me in a recent interview that it was ‘touch and go’ whether he would walk away, having only taken up the sport in 2017 after chancing upon a talent-spotting day where his height, speed and power metrics, honed as a world-level junior in taekwondo, were deemed ideal for skeleton. His biology and character, self-described on Saturday as a ‘performance animal’, made him a perfect fit.
After debating whether he would continue sliding after finishing 15th in Beijing, Weston was king of the track in Cortina
Denied a special new helmet and competing while recovering from a tear in his quadriceps he triumphed against the odds
By staying on after 2022, he benefited from an operation that spends significantly on research and design, supported by aerodynamic testing at a secretive wind-tunnel facility in Manchester. The team has also utilised a converted flight simulator, developed in part by the University of Southampton, to recreate different tracks around the world.
‘We try to maximize everything we can do off track,’ Weston said on Saturday. ‘Obviously, we’ve got some stuff there, but I think a lot of it’s secret, so I don’t want to go into detail. It’s definitely helped me get to this position now.’
On occasion, lines have been crossed – the team was foiled when they unveiled a new helmet design for the Olympics.
That was deemed a major setback to Weston, as was a 12cm tear in his quadriceps at the start of the season, but he insisted he was unflustered by the saga all along.
The piece of metal in his socks would suggest his confidence was not misplaced.
