Matthew Weston (born 2 March 1997) is an English skeleton racer. He is a double Olympic, World and European champion and has won the overall World Cup title on three occasions. Alongside Lizzy Yarnold, Weston is Great Britain's most decorated athlete in Winter Olympic history.
During his youth, Weston competed in taekwondo and rugby before switching to skeleton in 2017 following his participation in UK Sport's Discover your Gold programme. He won his first World Cup event in 2021 and finished in 15th position at the 2022 Winter Olympics. In January 2023, he became the European champion and later the same month won his first world title, becoming the second British man to be crowned world skeleton champion. He won successive overall World Cup titles in 2023–24 and 2024–25, and in 2025, he won the World Championships to become the first Briton to be a two-time world skeleton champion. In 2026, he became the European champion for the second time as well as winning his third overall World Cup title.
Weston won the gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina. This made him the third Briton, after Amy Williams and Lizzy Yarnold, to win Olympic gold in skeleton. He then won the mixed team event with Tabitha Stoecker and in doing so became the first man to win two Olympic gold medals in skeleton.
With his win in Milano-Cortina, Weston became only the second male slider ever to win the Olympic, World, European and World Cup titles, and the first to be the champion in all four at the same time. Weston's successes at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games also made him the first British athlete to win more than one gold medal during the same Winter Olympics as well as first British male athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics since Christopher Dean did so for ice dancing in 1984 and the first British man to win a gold medal in an individual event in any sport at a Winter Olympics since figure skater Robin Cousins in 1980. Westons' two gold medals at the 2026 Olympics make him in medal number terms Brtain's joint-most most successful Winter Olympic athlete in history along with Lizzy Yarnold.
Life and career
Weston was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent and grew up in Crowborough, East Sussex.[3] He attended Bennett Memorial Diocesan School, in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent,[4] and was a keen rugby player, competing for both Kent and Sevenoaks RFC.[5] Taking inspiration from his father's passion for sports, Weston also competed in taekwondo, entering European and national-level events,[6] earning medals in the 2012 European Cup in Slovakia and at a 2014 World Cup event in Brighton.[7] He was forced to quit the combat sport following a stress fracture of the back.[6] In 2017, his fitness coach suggested that he apply for Discover your Gold, a talent identification programme hosted by UK Sport.[8] After undergoing tests, Skeleton was identified as an option for him and he then trained with Royal Marines to test his physical and mental abilities.[6]
In 2019, Weston competed in skeleton for the first time, and subsequently won two second-tier Europa Cup titles in his first three races.[6] At the 2020 World Championships, he finished in 15th position,[9] and at the end of the year, Weston won his first ever World Cup medal after securing a silver in Innsbruck. It was his fifth start in a World Cup event and his second-place finish was the highest placing by a British man since Kristan Bromley in 2010.[10] At the 2021 World Championships, he finished 23rd.[11]
In November 2021, Weston won his first ever World Cup gold medal after finishing in a three-way tie for victory in Innsbruck. He shared victory with German slider Christopher Grotheer and Chinese athlete Geng Wenqiang who all recorded the same time.[12] The following February, he competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics and finished in 15th place.[2] Weston reportedly considered quitting the sport after an Olympic Games where Great Britain failed to win any medal in skeleton having claimed a minimum of one medal at the previous five Games.[6]
Weston finished third at the season-opening 2022–23 World Cup race in Whistler,[13] before winning a gold medal in the event at Lake Placid.[14] In January, he won a bronze medal in Winterberg,[15] and back-to-back gold medals in Altenberg,[16] the latter doubled up as the European Championships.[17] The following month, he won further races in Innsbruck[18] and Sigulda to finish the World Cup in overall second position. An 18th-place finish earlier in the competition had cost him points as Christopher Grotheer claimed overall victory.[19] At the 2023 World Championships in St Moritz, Weston won the world title, becoming Great Britain's second male world champion, and first since Kristan Bromley in 2008. He finished the competition 1.79 seconds ahead of Italian slider Amedeo Bagnis.[20] He also finished runner-up in the mixed team event with teammate Laura Deas.[21]
In December 2023, Weston finished second at La Plagne in the 2023–24 World Cup,[22] before winning his first World Cup event of the season in Innsbruck.[23] In February, he finished runner-up to Marcus Wyatt at the 2024 European Championships in Sigulda. Weston finished 0.16 seconds behind his compatriot.[24] Later that month, at the 2024 World Championships in Winterberg, Weston finished with silver medals in both the men's skeleton (behind Grotheer),[25] and the mixed team event with Tabby Stoecker.[26] Later in the World Cup series, he finished third at events in Sigulda and Altenberg.[27] Heading into the final race of the World Cup competition in Lake Placid, Weston trailed Grotheer by 75 points, but a 17th place-finish for the German coupled with a fourth place for Weston gave the Briton the overall World Cup title. He was the first British man to win the series in 16 years.[28]
In the 2024–25 World Cup, Weston finished in third position at the first two races that were both held in Pyeongchang.[29] He then won three successive silver medals in the series at Yanqing,[30] Altenberg[31] and Sigulda,[32] before claiming successive victories in Winterberg[33] and St Moritz.[34] He also won a bronze medal in the mixed team event at St Moritz with Amelia Coltman.[35] At the end of the competition, which he ended with an eighth-place finish in Lillehammer, Weston was crowned the overall World Cup champion for the second successive year. He became the third Briton after Bromley and Alex Coomber to win multiple overall World Cup titles.[36]
In March 2025, Weston was crowned the world champion in Lake Placid; his winning advantage of 1.9 seconds was the second-largest margin in the history of the competition.[37] He recorded the fastest times in both of the first two runs to take an overnight lead of 0.89 seconds. He then set a track record in his third run before securing the title in his fourth. His compatriot Wyatt came second, marking the first time that Great Britain had won two medals in the same event at a skeleton World Championships. He also became the first British skeleton athlete to win two world titles in the sport.[38] He then won a silver medal in the mixed team event with Stoecker.[39]
Weston tore a quad muscle eight weeks prior to the beginning of the 2025–26 season[40] and returned to racing in the World Cup. He won the first race of the series in Cortina to secure his tenth career gold medal in World Cups.[41] He then won another gold at the next leg of the series in Lillehammer,[42] before winning a gold and then a silver at back-to-back events held in Sigulda.[43] In January 2026, Weston set a new track record during his victory in St Moritz, his fourth World Cup win of the season.[44] Later that week, on the same track, Weston became the European champion for the second time after finishing 0.91 seconds ahead of Bagnis. The event also formed part of the World Cup series.[45] In the final event of the World Cup season in Altenberg, Weston finished runner-up to help secure the overall gold medal for the series[46] and become the first British man to win the competition three times.[47]
At the 2026 Winter Olympics, Weston won the gold medal in the men's skeleton and became the first British man to be an Olympic champion in the sport. He set a new track record in each of his four runs at the Cortina Sliding Centre and finished the event 0.88 seconds ahead of German slider Axel Jungk who finished second.[48][49] Comparing his gold medal to his previous medals in the sport, Weston said: "winning this blows them all out of the water", and explained how he had been working with pyschologists on the mental aspects of competing. His victory was the first by a British man in an individual event at a Winter Olympics since figure skater Robin Cousins won a gold medal in 1980,[50] and the first gold by a British man in any event since Christopher Dean's victory in the ice dance in 1984.[48]
Weston then won his second medal of the games in the mixed team event where he partnered Stoecker. The duo set a new track record as they finished 0.17 seconds ahead of German pairing Jungk and Susanne Kreher. He became the first Briton to win two gold medals at a single Games and the second Briton to have won two career gold medals at Winter Olympics after Lizzy Yarnold who triumphed in both 2014 and 2018.[51][52] After he had won his second gold medal, it was revealed that Weston would undergo surgery on a shoulder injury that he had suffered with during the season.[40]
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