Relive Matt Weston’s golden run as Ilia Malinin stumbles in shock free skate
Matt Weston produced a commanding display on Friday (ET) to win Olympic gold in the men’s skeleton, giving Great Britain its first top podium finish of the Games. The night’s drama was rounded out by a shock in men’s figure skating as favourite Ilia Malinin dropped to eighth after a troubled free skate.
Weston’s flawless run to gold
Weston turned in four blistering runs on the Cortina track, setting a string of track records and emerging with the gold medal after a performance he described as almost surreal. “I don’t know whether it is real. It feels like a bit of a blur, ” Weston said after the medal ceremony, adding that the emotion left him “too busy crying to see the numbers. ”
The British sledder celebrated the achievement in typically unflashy fashion — three slices of margherita pizza and an early night — before refocusing on the mixed team skeleton event. Weston made clear he sees Friday’s win as one chapter rather than the finish line: he called himself a perfectionist and said there were still bits of his last run he wanted to tidy up.
Weston’s gold put Team GB above several nations who had collected multiple medals but were still waiting for a top finish. Former Olympic champions and members of the team were visibly moved by the result, with tears and celebrations across the British camp. The victory also sparked a surge in interest back home, with the nation’s talent ID programme receiving a notable boost in enquiries in the immediate aftermath.
Mixed team gold in his sights
Weston now has the chance to chase a second Olympic title in the new mixed team skeleton event. The format pairs one male and one female run from each nation, with a reaction-start mechanism replacing the normal free start — sledders must wait for the start lights and risk a half-second penalty for a false start. Weston said the added jeopardy should inject adrenaline into the contest and is optimistic about Britain’s prospects.
He will be paired with the fastest of the British women — among them Tabby Stoecker and Freya Tarbit, who were fifth and sixth respectively after the first two heats in the women’s competition. Weston singled out the depth of the squad and named potential rivals as nations whose athletes had occupied the silver and bronze podium positions in the men’s race and similar places in the women’s standings. Teammates, including his roommate at the Games, will form the core of the mixed-team challenge.
Weston stressed that the mixed event represents an opportunity to add “more bling” to an already historic week and said the team believes it can contend for another medal. The reaction-start element will require nerves and timing as much as speed, and Weston is relishing the new dynamic.
Figure skating upset and wider night of drama
While skeleton produced euphoria for Britain, men’s figure skating provided a major upset. Ilia Malinin, widely expected to challenge for gold, delivered a subpar free skate and slipped down the standings to finish eighth. The miss was a shock given his status coming into the event and reshuffled the podium picture in a contest that had been tightly contested.
The evening also saw other notable developments across sliding sports: a Ukrainian racer’s appeal over a disqualification relating to helmet symbolism was dismissed, and the British women’s and men’s curling teams both suffered defeats in tight matches on the same night. With eight golds still to be decided on day eight and Team GB carrying momentum from Weston’s triumph, attention now turns to whether the skeleton squad can convert individual success into further team glory.
Weston’s gold has given his nation a powerful early boost. If he and the British women can produce strong runs in the mixed team event, the Games could get even brighter for the squad that has long punched above its weight in skeleton despite having no home ice track.
