Cool Britannia: skeleton stars goal Olympic historical past regardless of an absence of ice | Bobsleigh

Pinned to a wall contained in the small wood hut housing Britain’s solely skeleton and bobsleigh push-start observe is a discover delivering well being and security instructions with no trace of irony.

Alongside directions to make sure leaves and different hazards are cleared prior to make use of is the stipulation that the observe have to be freed from ice. That Britain is the world’s solely high sliding nation completely navigating an absence of frozen services betrays the directive’s inadvertent satire.

It’s right here, on the outskirts of the College of Tub’s predominant campus, flanked on one facet by fields and on the opposite a disused fashionable pentathlon capturing vary, that Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt have made a mockery of Britain’s climatic handicap.

This month, Weston, 28, retained his skeleton World Cup title forward of 33-year-old Wyatt within the silver-medal spot. A couple of weeks on, the pair then replicated that one-two on the world championships, Weston regaining the title he had relinquished the earlier yr (when ending second) to grow to be Britain’s first ever skeleton a number of world champion. His successful margin of 1.9sec was the second greatest within the occasion’s historical past.

Simply over 10 months out from the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, they’ve etched their names as gold- and silver-medal favourites. Remarkably, they’ve performed so from the temperate climes of England’s south-west.

“For the success we now have, in comparison with the nations who do have ice tracks, it’s a kick within the tooth for them,” says Weston. “It most likely annoys them a bit extra. We don’t have an ice observe and we’re nonetheless beating them.”

Meteorological circumstances imply Britain’s skeleton programme operates reasonably in a different way to its frost-fortunate rivals. As Weston and Wyatt pose for pictures, an orange digger works its manner up and down the 140-metre push-start observe, scooping mud from an adjoining ditch to switch an previous gravel path that washed away in latest winter storms. “It will take about two hours to get the digger off,” its operator informs the Guardian photographer, dashing hopes of a transparent backdrop for the pictures.

By means of autumn and winter, the whole British sliding setup relocates to colder areas worldwide; throughout spring and summer season, they hone their craft right here, exploiting their reliance on the push-start observe to grow to be the perfect within the enterprise at propelling sleds. The conundrum of then making an attempt to steer it down a frozen observe whereas mendacity head first and approaching speeds of 90mph is saved for the opposite half of the yr once they head abroad.

Climatic constraints inform every thing they do. Whereas different nations use their ice tracks to show sliding from a younger age, Britain’s expertise identification system – which took Weston from taekwondo and Wyatt from American soccer – turns robust bodily athletes into professional pushers, earlier than later tackling the sliding aspect.

Does that not imply a hefty portion of younger recruits routinely develop into poor sliders once they do ultimately attain ice? “On a regular basis,” says Weston. “However for many who can do it, our benefit is that we’re out-pushing different nations so we’re already forward from the beginning. Once we get it proper, like I did in Lake Placid [when winning his second world title earlier this month], we’re nearly untouchable.”

The absence of frozen assets at dwelling additionally forces British athletes to make up for misplaced ice time by collaborating, creating a novel camaraderie at odds with the cut- throat nature of different skeleton setups.

“From day one on the programme, you might be advised that we’re working as a crew,” says Wyatt. “Every year, we solely get about 150 runs on ice. Every run is lower than a minute, so that you’re two hours of really doing the game annually. After each run, we’ll discuss to one another about it. So, though we solely have 150 runs, it’s like we now have 300 runs as a result of I exploit Matt’s as a lot as he makes use of mine.”

Weston provides: “That’s massively totally different to different nations. It’s very uncommon for athletes to work so intently collectively and it shocks different nations how a lot we share and do collectively. It’s no secret that I need to beat Marcus and he needs to beat me, but when we can assist one another be one-two after which have that little inner battle it’s supreme.”

Current outcomes counsel the method is working, simply because it did when GB produced three successive feminine Olympic gold medals from 2010 to 2018 courtesy of Amy Williams and double champion Lizzy Yarnold. Nonetheless, Weston and Wyatt may solely end fifteenth and sixteenth respectively at Beijing 2022, marking Britain’s first skeleton podium absence for the reason that sport was reintroduced 20 years earlier. The difficulty, the pair admit, was expertise.

“For the Beijing yr, we introduced out new tools, new sleds and took a raffle,” says Wyatt. “The programme had designed one thing that we thought was going to be world-beating and it didn’t go to plan. What we’d performed at each different Olympics had been fairly particular however you find yourself falling again. We simply bought it mistaken.”

A few of the British contingent thought-about retirement within the wake of that Beijing disappointment. As an alternative, a wholesale evaluation resulted within the recruitment of lately retired Latvian nice Martins Dukurs as efficiency coach, alongside his professional sled builder Matthias Guggenberger. “It was a giant gamble to carry them in as a result of it went in opposition to what we’d beforehand performed as an all-British-built sled,” says Wyatt.

That each Weston and Wyatt immediately gained a medal with the redesigned sled on the first World Cup occasion the next season highlighted simply how essential expertise is within the sport; like a driver in motor racing who can solely achieve this a lot with a sluggish automobile. The British pair have hardly ever been absent from the rostrum since, bringing the brand new problem of lofty expectations.

“Beijing was extraordinarily irritating because the tools allow us to down,” says Weston. “The actual fact we had been in a position to flip it round so rapidly on a model new piece of kit truly simply goes to indicate that we may have gone there and carried out. The package didn’t work.

“Though, the issues now aren’t how you can get near the medals, it’s extra about how you can cope with strain. It’s not an expectation that we may win a medal, it’s if we don’t win a medal we’ve failed. That, for me, has been the most important factor I’ve wanted to work on. However that’s a optimistic factor to need to cope with.”

Backed up by historic information, Weston and Wyatt insist that, Beijing apart, the British contingent often excel at an Olympics. Intriguingly, they level to the dearth of an ice observe in Britain as the explanation why.

“At an Olympics you don’t get a lot time on the observe,” explains Weston. “You solely get a certain quantity of runs. We’re extraordinarily good at that as a result of we don’t have a house observe so each observe we go to we’d like to have the ability to be taught fairly fast and carry out right away. We now have to; we don’t have a alternative.”

Regardless of their contrasting characters – Weston, sporting a slick new line shaved into his hair, is an extrovert, whereas Wyatt is of course quieter and extra thought-about – the shut buddies select to spend their spare time collectively along with the half-year that they stay in one another’s pocket. “I’ve most likely shared a mattress with him extra over the previous six months than I’ve with my fiancee or him along with his spouse,” jokes Weston. “It’s fairly intense.”

Surprisingly, there may be one topic they differ on: whether or not they would swap what they’ve in Tub for ice all-year spherical. “Sure,” says Weston. “It will permit us to do much more testing and low-pressure sliding. I’d like to have that chance a bit extra.”

Wyatt disagrees: “I wouldn’t change what we now have now, in the identical manner that I wouldn’t change what occurred on the final Olympics. With out that end result we wouldn’t be right here. So I’m pleased with what we’ve bought.”

No ice; music to a well being and security officer’s ears.