Team GB win first medal at Winter Olympics after striking gold in men's skeleton

Matt Weston came out on top in singles skeleton competition, clinching Team GB's first medal at the Games in Italy.

The 28-year-old, a world and European champion had dominated from the beginning of the competition, setting track records in both of his first two runs at the Cortina Sliding Centre on Thursday.

He started the final two heats on Friday with a combined time of one minute 52.09s, 0.3s ahead of Axel Jungk, and quickly built on that advantage when setting another new best in clocking 55.63s for his third run.

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That gave him a 0.39s advantage over Jungk going into the final heat and Weston made no mistake as he increased his margin of victory to 0.88s in his final run.

Jungk was second with fellow German Christopher Grotheer third.

Reacting afterwards, Weston said: "I literally can’t describe it. I’ve been fortunate enough to win world championships, European championships and other things as well and this blows them all out of the water.

"I can’t describe the feeling. I almost feel numb. It’s kind of not real. I keep touching it (his medal) to make sure it is real but it doesn’t feel real."

Despite having held a clear advantage from his very first run, Weston still felt there were parts of his performance that could be improved as he continues to seek "the perfect line" around the track.

He said: "I think there’s always bits to clean up. I’m very much a perfectionist. Every single run I do I’m thinking I need to clean this set, I need to clean that up.

"Even if it was a track record, I’m still very much trying to find that perfect line.“Whether it’s possible or not I don’t know but that’s what keeps me going.:

Weston is the first British man to win a skeleton gold, with Amy Williams and Lizzy Yarnold having triumphed previously in the women’s competition and he was thrilled to have followed in their footsteps.

"Hopefully I did you proud."

The build-up to the event for Weston and team-mate Marcus Wyatt had been dominated by a row over the British team's helmets, which were deemed to be illegal by authorities.

The British pair instead reverted to the helmets they used to dominate the 2025-26 World Cup season, where Weston won five of seven races and Wyatt the other two.

He said: “I’m just so pleased that I’m able to continue such an amazing legacy. We’ve had some insane athletes come before me and set the standard, set the momentum.

"Obviously Beijing (in 2022) didn’t go quite as well as we’d hoped. We took a risk with equipment then and it didn’t quite pay off.

"But now we completely reset, we revamped everything, new coaches, new kind of philosophies around things and yeah, I think we’ve turned it around pretty well.

Weston’s parents, Alison and Tom, along with his fiancee Alex were there to witness his triumph and he added: “They’re the ones that are pushing me the most."

Weston made his debut in skeleton in 2019, after previously competing in taekwondo.

Passing his congratulations, Sir Keir Starmer wrote on X: "History-making. Congratulations Matt Weston!"

Weston won a gold for Great Britain at the men's World Cup in 2021, which was the first win in the sport for almost 14 years.

After competing at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and with a new coach, he won the European title in 2023 and a week later became world champion, before retaining his title in 2025.

Team GB had won a medal in the skeleton event at each of the Games since 2002 until 2018.