Matt Weston’s former school teacher has said he could see “clear-mindedness” in the skeleton star’s eyes before he clinched gold to become the first British athlete to win multiple medals at the same Winter Olympics.
The former rugby player and Tabby Stoecker won the mixed team skeleton competition on Sunday, after Weston’s gold in the men’s event on Friday evening.
Great Britain had never previously won more than one gold medal at the same Winter Olympics – with Weston’s win they won three within 48 hours.
Watching from home, the 28-year-old’s former school PE teacher was questioning “how on earth is he going to cope with this pressure?” as he realised Weston may be able to secure a second medal in Milano Cortina, Italy.
“And I just saw him at the start and I could see that sort of just clear-mindedness in his eyes and I thought, ‘He’s got this. You know what? I think he’s actually got this’,” Justin Singleton said.
“It was just like nail-biting down the whole track, and I’m thinking, ‘Come on, lad, you got this, you got this all the way through’.”
The head of sport at Bennett Memorial Diocesan School in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where Weston studied, added: “I think my heart hasn’t quite got back to normal.
“To go last and know that you’ve got to pull off effectively the fastest time you’ve done on that course without any mistakes… that takes you to that next level, he’s got to have been sublimely calm to actually have kept the focus, to have kept all that training that they do.
“This is this bend, this is that bend and that all that mental rehearsal that they do.”
The former rugby fullback and winger, who also practised taekwondo, was “lively” at school.
He was also fast, fearless, brave and, like the best rugby players, “can think”, Mr Singleton said.
This allowed him to perform in a way his opponents would not expect, he added.
Weston was also injured multiple times by going “against players twice his size”, the teacher told the Press Association.
He said: “I’ve taught several people that have done really well in different sports, and the difference between the ones that are really good at the sport and the ones that are, you know, absolutely amazing, is all that mental approach, that mental attitude, and obviously (for) him now it’s calmness.”
He added: “He came from a background of being fast on a rugby pitch… reaction times being ridiculous when he was doing taekwondo.”
By combining speed, strength and reactions, then adding fearlessness, “you have the ultimate combination for a skeleton event”, he said.
He recalled Weston using a wheelchair at school after hurting his back while competing internationally in taekwondo.
“He was in a wheelchair, but he was still happy as Larry… basically, speeding around school in a wheelchair,” he said.
Teachers had to tell him “you’ve got to be careful, fella, because you’re going to damage your back even more”, he said.
“He was like, ‘I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine’ – flying downstairs on his wheelchair.”
Staff at a UK Sport Discover Your Gold talent spotting scheme noticed Weston’s potential in 2017.
“They turned around and said, ‘Have you ever thought about skeleton?’ And I think his initial reaction was no,” Mr Singleton said.
After further tests he went on a training weekend and discovered his skill, the teacher told PA, adding: “He’s like a duck to water.”
Mr Singleton taught Weston between the ages of 11 and 16.
He said he sent him a text message after the latest gold, saying “we’ll catch up when you’re home”.
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