Matt Weston says he had no idea how his teammate had performed before securing Olympic gold.
Speaking on The Sports Agents podcast after winning his second Olympic title at Milano Cortina on Sunday, the 28-year-old skeleton racer described how he blocked out all outside information before his decisive run.
Weston delivered a 58:59 run to seal gold with a combined time of 1:59:36 in the mixed team event alongside Tabby Stoecker. He admitted he deliberately avoided looking at the leaderboard before setting off.
“I just kept myself, like, in the zone. I almost was saying to myself, ‘Be boring. Go down the track, don’t do anything silly, just tick the boxes,’” he said. “Because I had no idea what Tabby had done before me, because I literally didn’t want to look at any times, didn’t want to let anything get into my head.”
He explained that he chose to shut out the wider context of the race, saying it would not change his approach on the ice. Instead, he focused solely on executing his own performance as cleanly and quickly as possible.
The victory made Weston Team GB’s first male athlete to win two gold medals at the same Winter Olympic Games. Reflecting on that achievement, he said the response since returning home has been significant.
“I think we’ve had a massive influx of people applying and putting their name forward to try and be like the next, hopefully, Olympic gold medallist,” he said. “So that’s really, really exciting for me, and kind of makes me feel a bit proud that I’ve inspired a few people to go on and give it a go.”
His appearance on the podcast offered insight into the mindset behind elite winter sport success, with Weston describing a controlled, methodical approach rather than a reaction to scoreboard pressure.
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