Day seven of the Winter Olympics fell on Friday 13th but far from being unlucky, it was the day Team GB’s medal curse finally lifted.
Morale has dropped after a series of near misses, including three fourth-places – one by a fraction of a point – and the day started off badly as Charlotte Bankes fell victim to her own curse, that of the Olympic quarter-final, once again.
But after Blue Monday, Terrible Tuesday, and Worrying Wednesday, and with anxiety swirling over how feasible UK Sport’s target of four to eight medals actually is, Matt Weston arrived to save the day.
Much has been made of how Great Britain, not a traditional winter sports nation, has been a disruptive force at elite level over the last few seasons. GB arrived at this Games with several medal favourites, and some have struggled to cope with the pressure, or simply seen things not go their way on the day. Winter sports can be capricious, tricksy beasts.
But they reckoned without Weston, who has not risen to the occasion so much as bent it to his own will, remaking skeleton in his image.
The 28-year-old has been the dominant force on the World Cup circuit for the last couple of years. He tore his quad eight weeks before the start of the 2025/26 season but he came back from that in utterly imperious form, winning five of the seven World Cup races and becoming the first British man to win three overall titles. He is the reigning world champion, a three-time European champion, and an utterly ruthless operator.
He broke the track record in Cortina d’Ampezzo – where he won the first World Cup of the year, on the brand-new Olympic track – in each of his four runs, even after a minor error early in his first heat on Thursday.
There were no such errors in the remaining three; he was the first to go under 56 seconds, in his second heat, and took an advantage of three-tenths of a second into Friday.
1,440m of ice, with 16 curves and chicanes, and a 170m drop in elevation: all tamed by Britain’s first-ever men’s skeleton Olympic champion.
His demeanour after every race has been telling, roaring with delight, full of adrenaline. After setting the ludicrous time of 55.63 seconds after the third heat he celebrated before waving sweetly to the camera, already resetting, laser-focused on the task at hand. The BBC commentary team said the rest of the field “may as well pack up and go home”.
In other disciplines it may have been possible to go for a safe final run, confident of holding onto the lead; in skeleton the margins are razor-thin so that is unwise, but nonetheless Weston is not that kind of character.
As the temperature dropped to -3 degrees in Cortina, making the technical, slightly slow track faster, he took to the track as the last of 24 sliders.
And the world No 1 delivered: another track record, an astonishing 55.61, and a glittering gold, with his winning time 3:43.33 – 0.88 quickest than his nearest rival and over a second clear of third place.
He leapt into his coach’s arms to celebrate, dropping to his knees on the ice before roaring at the flag-waving British crowd, letting out four years of pain, suffering, frustration and elation in turn.
Beijing silver medallist Axel Jungk of Germany took silver in 3:44.21, while his compatriot, and defending champion, Christopher Grotheer finished in 3:44.30 for bronze, his second Olympic medal.
Weston’s teammate Marcus Wyatt finished in ninth, 2.44 seconds off Weston’s time.
