Matt Weston reveals he won double Olympic gold despite shoulder injury that requires surgery

Weston and Stoecker partied until 4am to celebrate winning the first-ever mixed team skeleton event, adding another to Weston’s historic individual gold on Friday

A day after becoming Team GB’s joint-most successful Winter Olympian in history, double skeleton champion Matt Weston revealed that he still has room to get faster after being hampered by a shoulder injury throughout this season.

His season was already jeopardised by a tear in his quad only eight weeks before it began, and he will undergo shoulder surgery on his return from the Games.

Despite the pain, the 28-year-old won individual gold on Friday before winning the inaugural mixed team event alongside Tabby Stoecker on Sunday, tying with two-time skeleton gold medallist Lizzy Yarnold as Britain’s most successful Winter Olympian.

Weston said: “I’ve been competing with a dodgy shoulder and in a lot of pain quite a lot of the time. I’m looking forward to getting that fixed, because there’s a lot of sled work I haven’t been able to do. I’ve had to rely on coaches to help me, carrying my sled around, not just because I’m being lazy and being a bit of a princess, but physically, it would break me. I was hanging on getting to these Games and the team around me have done a very good job just to get me here and in good enough condition that I can go and compete.”

“The toll that it takes on your body to do this sport, like the training alone. For a year or so, I’ve needed [the shoulder operation], but we’ve been holding out until after the Games... we just didn’t want to risk it. My hip is done. If you X-Rayed me, you’d probably find a hundred problems.”

Regardless of injuries Weston was in imperious form at the Cortina Sliding Centre, winning by a total of 0.88 seconds from Germany’s Axel Jungk in the individual event and hauling back a deficit of 0.3 seconds after Stoecker’s run to win by 0.17 seconds on Sunday.

And that was with the same helmet that Team GB have worn to great success throughout this season, rather than the super-aerodynamic new one that was banned before the competition for failing to meet current regulations. Weston said: “I am always wanting more. I think there’s still some potential to get faster, to get quicker. That’s one thing that is amazing, that we can still get more.

“In terms of the helmets, I think we proved that even without them, we’re good enough. The fact that we’ve gone out there and proved that we didn’t need them anyway is a big pat on the back to us, I think.”

The pair and the wider team let their hair down afterwards; Weston admitted they didn’t get back to the Team GB lodgings until 4am. “We’re not known for being good drinkers because we’re athletes,” he said. “So, we’re not heavyweight, let’s put it that way!

Matt Weston and Tabby Stoecker claimed GB’s third gold of these Games (Reuters)

“I think we’re just running on adrenaline at the moment and the buzz of having an Olympic gold medal on our necks.”

Both plan to end their seasons on the high of Olympic gold. Stoecker, who made her Olympic debut in Cortina, said: “All the decisions I’ve been making for the last six years of my life have been led by: Is this going to benefit my performance somehow? So I can’t wait to switch off and do things just because I want to.”

Weston has a stag do to look forward to, organised by Stoecker’s boyfriend Pat, although his fellow gold medallist has been “sworn to secrecy” on the plans. “I’m going to be whisked off somewhere, I have no idea where, I have no idea what we’re doing,” Weston said.

He competed in taekwondo to a high level as a teenager until a stress fracture in his back forced him to retire, but he felt that even his martial arts experience wouldn’t protect him from the usual stag do hijinks. “There’s power in numbers, I think, with those guys,” he joked. “No matter how well I remember my taekwondo moves, they’re going to have some fun with me, I think.

Stoecker and Weston celebrating their win at the Cortina Sliding Centre (Reuters)

“We’ve missed a lot in terms of the sacrifices we have to make to get to this point, so to celebrate with some of my closest friends, have a bit of a blowout. We’ve been very sensible for the past four or five years, concentrating on this, and not really had that much chance to let loose, so I’m looking forward to that.”

Going on his stag do will be a welcome return to normality for the man from Tunbridge Wells, who is aware – with rumours of a BBC Sports Personality of the Year nomination gathering pace – that his life is about to change significantly.

He said: “I’ve kind of been preparing a little bit for it. Obviously, this was the goal coming into it – to go there and win everything, which is kind of how I operate in normal terms. My teammates call me Captain 110 per cent. I hate losing. So this was the goal, but to actually achieve it is pretty special. I’m not quite sure how it’s going to change because I’ve been keeping off socials, keeping off my phone. But I’ve definitely noticed a bit of a buzz.”

After a relatively slow start to these Games, Milano-Cortina is already Team GB’s most successful ever; having never won more than one gold at a single Olympics, the team now has three in 48 hours, largely down to Weston. His individual gold was only Great Britain’s 13th ever at a Winter Games, his team gold with Stoecker their 15th.

The pair were last to go on Sunday with Weston erasing a 0.3 second deficit to win gold (AP)

The pair are hopeful their achievements will inspire others to take up the sport. Weston said that 3,500 people have already signed up for a UK Sport Talent ID day, which was the same way he got into it.

Stoecker said: “For skeleton, it’s not always the most watched outside of the Games, for our World Cups, for our World Champs, and we’ve been really successful, but maybe not [got] as much recognition as maybe other sports get. So to have this moment at the Olympic Games with the whole nation behind us, being front page on the news, having all the attention: it’s not just for us, it is for all those people who might be inspired by what we’ve done in any way. Whether it’s just being active, or getting into a sport, or getting into skeleton. That just feels so impactful, and, hopefully, that will last way longer than, you know, we will.”

Weston said: “You never know where you’re going to end up in this sport; it can take you on an amazing journey. I’ve been to countries and places I never thought I would go, I’ve achieved things I never thought I would do, and there’s already been a pretty big uptake. That’s pretty special to me that we’ve been able to be part of that inspirational journey.”