Matt Weston kicked off the 2026 skeleton racing season in spectacular fashion by securing the gold medal in the opening men’s event at St Moritz on Wednesday. This victory marks Weston’s fourth gold in five races this season, reinforcing his status as a top contender ahead of the upcoming Winter Olympics.
The 29-year-old British slider dominated a field of 27 athletes, winning the rescheduled race in Switzerland by over 1.25 seconds across two runs. Italy’s Amedeo Bagnis, who was Weston’s closest rival at the 2023 World Championships at the same venue, claimed silver, finishing 1.29 seconds behind. Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer took bronze, 1.5 seconds off the pace, with all other competitors trailing by at least two seconds.
“It feels amazing to be back racing and pushing at 100 percent after my injury,” said Weston, who posted a combined time of 2 minutes 15.67 seconds. He is still on the mend from a serious quadriceps tear but is steadily getting back to peak form. “The race felt good. There’s still some room for improvement, but overall I’m happy with how things are progressing. We’ve been trying new techniques ahead of the Cortina World Cup stop, and it’s encouraging to see them pay off.”
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Weston’s remarkable season includes four gold medals and one silver, with two more World Cup races remaining—Friday’s event in St Moritz and the subsequent race in Altenberg. He currently leads the overall World Cup standings by 150 points over China’s Zheng Yin, aiming to capture his third consecutive Overall World Cup title.
His teammate Marcus Wyatt holds third place overall after finishing seventh in St Moritz with a time of 2:17.95. Wyatt remains the only other athlete to have won a World Cup race this season. Sitting just behind him are South Korea’s Seunggi Jun and Germany’s Axel Jungk, trailing by three and seventeen points respectively.
Jacob Salisbury, another Brit, finished 21st on the day and maintains that position in the World Cup rankings. Other British athletes — Brad Hall, Leon Greenwood, Taylor Lawrence, and Greg Cackett — narrowly missed the podium in the four-man bobsleigh event on German ice, finishing as the top non-German sled by 0.19 seconds.
Their 1:49.32 combined time improved on their previous best performance this season and solidified fifth place in the 4-man World Cup standings with two races left before the Olympics. Notably, 2022 Olympian and serving Royal Marine Taylor Lawrence made his season debut following recovery from a calf injury.
After the first run, the British team was in bronze medal position, just fractions of a second behind race leader Francesco Friedrich and Johannes Lochner. In the final run, German sled pilot Adam Ammour overtook them for third, while Friedrich and Lochner held first and second.
Germany dominated the women’s bobsleigh event as well, with Laura Nolte, Lisa Buckwitz, and Kim Kalicki completing a podium sweep. British duo Adele Nicoll and Ashleigh Nelson finished 18th, improving from 20th after the first run with a total time of 1:55.71. Nelson, aiming to compete in the Winter Games after previous Summer Olympics appearances, showed promise in the challenging competition.
The World Cup circuit continues with the penultimate race in St Moritz, Switzerland, as athletes build momentum heading into the Olympic Winter Games in February.