Great Britain’s Winter Olympics double gold medallist Matt Weston was an ace on the ice but also handy on the rugby field too
Matt Weston became the latest Team GB Olympic hero when he took home double gold at the recent Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.
The 28-year-old from Kent won the men’s and mixed team Skeleton in emphatic fashion to become Britain’s most successful Winter Olympian.
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However long before his life on the ice began, Weston started his sporting career on the rugby pitch.
The Olympian represented Tier 5 Kent side Sevenoaks before his Skeleton career and credits his rugby background with his recent success.
He spoke to Rugby World exclusively after the Games to talk about rugby and his double gold.
Matt Weston of Team Great Britain poses for photos after winning gold in the Men’s Skeleton (Getty Images)
Matt Weston on Skeleton, rugby and Shane Williams
How did you get into rugby?
I grew up in Crowborough near Tunbridge Wells and played rugby for them growing up. I had a few injuries which led me to stop playing for a while but when I came back to it a lot of my friends at school were playing for Sevenoaks so I moved there. I played for the first team at Sevenoaks which was a decent standard.
What did you like about the game?
I was always a very sporty kid – I did taekwondo as well and I think that helped me with my reflexes and hand/eye coordination – but I just loved the team element of rugby. The camaraderie you get around it is just so special.
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Who was your first rugby hero?
I absolutely loved watching Shane Williams. What a player. I’m half-Welsh so I grew up supporting Wales even though I was living in the Garden of England. There was quite a lot to cheer as a Welsh fan back then – at the moment it’s not going so well for us though.
What position did you play?
I was a wing or full-back. At one point I had discussions with my coach about maybe going to flanker because I did enjoy the contact side of things but I was a bit too fast to be taken off the wing. I had the legs.
I would have loved to have played rugby for a career but, looking back now, I realise I only began to take sport properly seriously when I got selected for skeleton through UK Sport’s Discover Your Gold programme in 2017.
Gold medalist Matt Weston of Team Great Britain celebrates on the podium (Getty Images)
Has a rugby mentality helped you in skeleton?
Yes. Definitely. When you first start in skeleton you do hit walls and they are concrete covered by ice. It is an occupational hazard and it can hurt. But I was already used to being beaten up in rugby!
I think I also took some of that love of the team element with me into skeleton. It is an individual sport in the main but in terms of the international field I’d say Great Britain are the most team-orientated out of all the nations. We work so well together and we’re so close to each other. We share everything.
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Do you have to be braver making a skeleton descent or tackling a giant forward head on?
Good question. They are two completely different types of fear. Skeleton is about getting over the fear of the speed you travel at and having no brakes. (His fastest recorded speed is 88.5mph).
But, whereas in skeleton, the idea is to avoid impacts with the walls, in rugby it is all about the impacts and there can be some fear involved in that. You’ve got to have a bit about you to do either. I actually think a lot of rugby players would probably have the right mentality for skeleton. I hope the Winter Olympics has inspired a few to have a go.
Matt Weston: ‘They are two completely different types of fear’
What is the post-match sliding sports culture like? Is it anything like rugby?
The skeleton guys do let our hair down after some of the bigger competitions. After the Olympics we did a lot of celebrating with all the other nations. Racing the same guys week in week out you do become very close to them so it does become like a bit of a family.
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When you weren’t busy bringing glory to Team GB in Cortina, did you have time to catch much of the Six Nations’ Championship?
My fiancee has actually bought me tickets to watch Italy v England for Christmas so we will go out to Rome for that. I spent the Winter Olympics in Italy, have popped home and then will head back out for the rugby. I’ll be supporting England for that one. My mum’s English and so is my fiancee.
Scotland’s flanker Gregor Brown jumps to win line-out ball during the Six Nations (Getty Images)
Which is the best rugby stadium you’ve been to?
I’ve been to quite a few Six Nations games at the Principality Stadium with my dad and it’s insane being inside that place when everyone is singing. You can feel the noise physically in your chest. For the players that must give them such a massive boost. When I was competing at the Winter Olympics and the crowd were shouting I felt that atmosphere gave me an extra edge but what it is like with 70,000 inside a stadium like that goodness only knows.
As a rugby fan, what do you think about the possibility of Wasps re-emerging in Swanley?
That would be cool. There’s a big gap in Kent. We have some great rugby clubs but not a full-time professional one so you have to go to London if you want to see Premiership teams. I’ve been to see Saracens and Harlequins in the past. It would be great to have Kent’s own club up there at the top level. If not Wasps, maybe Sevenoaks can make the jump?
Would you answer the call and lace up the boots again if Sevenoaks were ever short?
It’s actually in my contract that I’m not allowed to play any other sport. I can get away with maybe playing golf occasionally I think but rugby is slightly different. A bit more physical.
When I finish with skeleton I’m looking forward to being let off the leash and getting on a rugby pitch again. My last game for Sevenoaks would have been as an 18 or 19-year-old. I was quite fast then but with all the training I’ve done since and how much physically better I am now, the new Matt would blow the old Matt out of the water!
Who is your favourite current player?
Louis Bielle-Biarrey. He’s so quick and so exciting. It’s great watching players when you have no idea what they are going to do or where they are going to go. I love France’s fast brand of offloading rugby full stop.
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