Skeleton champion Matt Weston says he feels both “pressure” and “confidence” going into next February’s Winter Olympics as world number one.
Weston won his second world title at Lake Placid in March after defending his overall World Cup title in February, and sits at the top of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) world rankings.
The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics will take place in and around Milan, Italy, from 6-22 February 2026.
“I definitely feel a bit of pressure going into this games as world number one,” Weston told My Newspaper Radio Somerset.
“It carries some pressure with it but at the same time it carries some confidence. You get a heightened version of both.”
Next year will be his second Winter Olympics after he finished 15th in Beijing in 2022 just two years after making his World Cup race debut.
He represented England in taekwondo when he was a teenager and also played rugby until discovering skeleton via a talent spotting scheme.
By January 2023 he won the European Championships and followed it two weeks later with his debut world title – Great Britain’s first since for nine years.
“When I first won the World Championships I was still relatively an underdog, I was still unexpected. That season with a massive breakthrough season for me,” Weston said.
“The next season the whole dynamic changed, I did become the guy with the target on my back, I did become that guy that everyone was chasing down.
“That was hard for me to adjust to and deal with it and the different pressures that brings, but I’m got pretty used to it. I’ve turned it into something I enjoy and quite like.”
Weston, from Surrey, is part of the wider skeleton and bobsleigh Great Britain team based at the University of Bath.
Team-mate Marcus Wyatt won silver behind him at the World Championships two months ago and Weston believes the strength in the squad is pushing all athletes on.
“We’re so highly competitive, we’re so driven, we’re so motivated for this that that almost becomes the environment which is amazing. It feels really special to be part of a group like that,” Weston said.
“It’s not just one person having ok success, it’s the whole squad having great success and that’s the reason I’m in the position I am today, it’s the whole team around me.”
Next up for Weston is a pre-season trip to Norway before he heads to Innsbruck, Austria, and then Milan to train on the Winter Olympics track for the first time.
“[It is] hectic from as soon as I step on that plane at the end of September, start of October, right up until I’m on the start line in Milan,” Weston said.
“I’m looking to come home with the gold medal, that’s all I’m thinking of at the moment.”
