Matt Weston, based in Bath, has cemented his place in Winter Olympics history by becoming the first Briton to claim two gold medals in skeleton racing at a single Games.
Weston’s remarkable performance came in the exhilarating mixed team skeleton event, where he partnered with Tabitha Stoecker. After Stoecker set a strong but slightly off-pace time of 1:00.77—0.30 seconds behind the German leaders—the pressure was on Weston, the world’s top-ranked skeleton racer, to deliver the final run.
Weston rose to the occasion, clocking an exceptional 58.59 seconds and securing the victory for Team GB. This win marks his second gold of the Games, following his triumph in the Men’s event earlier on Friday.
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This victory also contributed to a historic milestone for Great Britain: a record three gold medals at a single Winter Olympics. Earlier on Sunday, Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won the snowboard cross mixed team gold—the first ever British gold medal on snow.
The mixed team skeleton win places Weston firmly in the record books as the first British athlete to earn two gold medals in the same Winter Olympics, adding to Team GB’s record-breaking third gold of the Games.
A second British skeleton duo, Marcus Wyatt and Freya Tarbit, narrowly missed out on a medal by just 0.01 seconds. The silver and bronze went to the German teams of Christopher Grotheer and Jacqueline Pfeifer, and Axel Jungk and Susanne Kreher, respectively.
Reflecting on the victory, Tabitha Stoecker told BBC Sport, “Thanks, Matt. I can’t believe it. It’s a team effort and when Matt came down and we were in the green, I was just in shock.”
Matt Weston shared his mindset: “Luckily I felt like I knew what I needed to do. I took a lot of confidence from the individual event and I almost had to ‘be boring’ to get the job done and do it again.”