From Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA
(February 13, 2026) – An amazing four years of sliding by Matt Weston culminated on Friday with his first Olympic gold medal after a dominating performance that saw the Brit set a track record in every heat.
Weston came into the second day of sliding in men’s skeleton with a .30 advantage over reigning Olympic silver medalist Germany’s Axel Jungk, with reigning gold medalist and three-time world champ Christopher Grotheer in third.
As the overnight leader, Weston was the first off the top, and lowered his own track record from 55.88 to 55.63 to kick things off. Despite the big run, Jungk didn’t let Weston get away just yet, as the German put down a time that was only .09 off of Weston’s pace to keep him to within .4 with one heat to go.
With Grotheer holding his advantage over China’s Wenhao Chen going into the final heat, it looked to be more of a battle to see who would win what medal than it was a battle to get on the podium.
In the fourth and final heat, Italian Amedeo Bagnis put down a quick and clean run to take the lead from Germany’s Felix Keisinger. But that lead was short lived, as Wenhao Chen’s fourth effort was another quick and consistent run to take the lead and knock on the door of the podium.
But the door would not be answered.
Grotheer, a three-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist who is no stranger to four-heat race pressure, had a quick start and another clean slide to move well ahead of Chen with Jungk and Weston still to go.
Jungk was next. On the hunt for at least his second straight Olympic silver medal, he started as quick as he had all week. For the first time all race he was just a little skiddy and while his time fell back to Grotheer, he had enough in the bank from the first three runs to hold his spot by .19 over Grotheer.
But those small mistakes left the door wide open for Weston.
Weston could have just played it safe on his way to gold, but instead had his second quickest start of the race and slid to yet another track record, .02 quicker than his third heat effort, on his way to a .88 victory over Jungk, with Grotheer third.
With his victory, Weston became the first ever men’s skeleton Olympic champion from Great Britain.
“It’s an actual dream,” he told the media after the race. “I literally cannot put into words what this means. It means obviously a hell of a lot for me but (also) everyone who had to sacrifice for me to be here, my fiancé, everyone like that.”
Chen took fourth, just ahead of Bagnis in fifth and Keisinger in sixth. Great Britain’s Marcus Wyatt moved up from tenth to ninth in the final heat.
Austin Florian led the way for the United States with a 12th place finish, up from 14th in the first heat, while teammate Dan Barefoot was 20th, four spots ahead of Canada’s Josip Brusic in 24th.
A native of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Mattia Gaspari took what was likely his last competitive slide on a track that is nearly in his own back yard. His fourth run was nearly flawless as he slid to a 13th place finish in front of an adoring crowd.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Run 4 | Total |
| 1 | Matt Weston | GBR | 1 | 56.21 | 55.88 | 55.63 | 55.61 | 3:43.33 |
| 2 | Axel Jungk | GER | 4 | 56.27 | 56.12 | 55.72 | 56.10 | 3:44.21 |
| 3 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 10 | 56.39 | 56.16 | 55.92 | 55.93 | 3:44.40 |
| 4 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 7 | 56.43 | 56.25 | 55.96 | 55.95 | 3:44.59 |
| 5 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 8 | 56.37 | 56.38 | 55.92 | 56.07 | 3:44.74 |
| 6 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 9 | 56.44 | 56.53 | 55.93 | 56.24 | 3:45.14 |
| 7 | Zheng Yin | CHN | 2 | 56.56 | 56.66 | 56.08 | 56.25 | 3:45.55 |
| 8 | Qinwei Lin | CHN | 14 | 56.89 | 56.33 | 56.21 | 56.18 | 3:45.61 |
| 9 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 3 | 56.52 | 56.69 | 56.32 | 56.24 | 3:45.77 |
| 10 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 6 | 56.57 | 56.65 | 56.19 | 56.49 | 3:45.90 |
| 11 | Rasmus Johansen | DEN | 15 | 56.82 | 56.52 | 56.52 | 56.45 | 3:46.31 |
| 12 | Austin Florian | USA | 13 | 56.95 | 56.59 | 56.54 | 56.41 | 3:46.59 |
| 13 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 12 | 56.73 | 56.72 | 56.79 | 56.55 | 3:46.79 |
| 14 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 5 | 56.89 | 57.23 | 56.55 | 56.53 | 3:47.20 |
| 15 | Vinzenz Buff | SUI | 21 | 57.27 | 57.02 | 56.80 | 56.87 | 3:47.96 |
| 16 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 17 | 57.15 | 57.00 | 57.03 | 56.93 | 3:48.11 |
| 17 | Florian Auer | AUT | 22 | 57.53 | 56.91 | 57.06 | 56.86 | 3:48.36 |
| 18 | Emils Indriksons | LAT | 20 | 57.29 | 57.11 | 56.95 | 57.15 | 3:48.50 |
| 19 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 16 | 57.63 | 57.66 | 57.21 | 57.19 | 3:49.69 |
| 20 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 23 | 57.47 | 57.22 | 57.75 | 57.42 | 3:49.86 |
| 21 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 19 | 58.26 | 57.57 | 57.18 | 57.21 | 3:50.22 |
| 22 | Jared Firestone | ISR | 24 | 58.15 | 57.74 | 57.83 | 57.63 | 3:51.35 |
| 23 | Hiroatsu Takahashi | JPN | 25 | 58.06 | 58.46 | 57.69 | 57.42 | 3:51.63 |
| 24 | Josip Brusic | CAN | 18 | 58.14 | 58.40 | 57.54 | 58.24 | 3:52.32 |