“What does it feel like to be the best in the world at skeleton,” Olympics.com asked Team GB star Matt Weston at a media summit in Edinburgh in June.
“Straight in with the big question,” said Weston with a laugh.
“It’s pretty amazing,” said the gold-medal hopeful at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. “I started the sport nine years ago and I’ve always had that goal, that ambition.”
Weston achieved ‘that’ ambition, of being world champion, twice, in 2023 and 2025 but even when achieving a long-held dream the London resident soon found out there are lessons to be learned from reaching the top.
“When I won the first Worlds, I actually struggled with it quite a lot the next season,” said Weston, who has also topped the World Cup standings for the past four seasons.
“I was like, ‘Oh God, I’m going in as the best in the world at this sport and people are going to be expecting me to win every race, do this, do that’, and then because I’ve had a few years now that I’ve been in that position I’ve kind of got used to it and turned it in my favour.
“I quite like it. I like the fact that everyone’s looking at what I’m doing. Everyone’s looking at like, what can Matt do? Let’s chase him. So I do quite like it now.”
Heading into an Olympic Winter Games as favourite is something else entirely, however, and that’s where he finds himself ahead of the men’s competition at Milano Cortina 2026.
The first two runs are on Thursday (12 February) and the second medal-deciding two, the following day. The Brits are also in contention for a podium spot in the mixed team taking place on Sunday (15 February).
In the individual event, Weston will be chased closely by the silver medallist at the 2025 world championship and the winner of the final World Cup race before the break for the Winter Olympics, team-mate Marcus Wyatt.
So how does that work when both are trying to win gold?
“I don’t think I would be No. 1 in the world without Marcus,” Weston told Olympics.com. “The fact that we are one and two in the world is amazing, and the fact that we’re fighting each other constantly for that top step of the podium is an amazing place to be in. But although in racing it seems like quite a big rivalry, in reality, we work so well together.
“We share information, we share equipment ideas, we share line ideas. We achieve what we do because we work so well together, and I think it’s very unusual in an individual sport, and especially in our sport as well, but I think that that is what sets us apart.
“It’s a good friendly rivalry, but also we don’t want to lose.”