Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 22, 2026
4 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleBritain's sliding team aims for a record medal count at the Winter Olympics, led by Matt Weston in skeleton and Brad Hall in bobsleigh.
By Mitch Phillips
BATH, England, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Britain has targeted a record five medals at next month's Winter Olympics and on Thursday they named their sliding team that is likely to make a major contribution to the haul.
Leading the charge is the men's skeleton, where double world champion and triple World Cup winner Matt Weston will start as favourite in Cortina, with regular roommate Marcus Wyatt, third in this year's World Cup, also a strong contender for the podium.
"I couldn’t really have wished for too much of a better season going into the Olympics," said Weston, who overcame a bad thigh injury to dominate the circuit.
"I’m obviously picking up on the things I need to improve because I’m a perfectionist, but I’m pleased with how the year has gone for me personally and for us as a team.
"We missed out on having fans on the ground for Beijing so there’s an added sense of excitement this time around and I’m really excited to have friends and family out there with me."
'INCREDIBLY PROUD'
On the women's side Tabby Stoecker, fresh from her third place in the World Cup, leads a team of three alongside Amelia Coltman in an event where Britain has won gold three times. Germany are the only other nation to have three sleds in the event.
"Getting selected for my first Olympic Games is a dream come true," said Stoecker. "I feel so incredibly proud of my journey up to this point and I can’t wait to represent my country in Cortina."
Another medal chance comes in the mixed team, making its Olympic debut this year, after Britain took this season's World Cup title.
The make-up of the team will be decided after the individual races, with the best finisher from the men's and women's likely to link up.
HALL LEADS BOBSLEIGH SQUADS
In bobsleigh, Brad Hall has been selected for his third Olympic Games and will pilot the two-man and four-man squads. The 35-year-old is Britain's most successful men’s World Cup pilot, with 30 medals to his name.
He will be joined in both events by Taylor Lawrence, who has 25 World Cup medals, and with whom Hall won World Cup bronze in St Moritz earlier this month.
Greg Cackett and Leon Greenwood complete the four-man squad, with Alex Cartagena named as the travelling reserve.
Despite a season challenged by injury, the squad’s final World Cup races ahead of the Games saw them secure fourth in the overall four-man standings and sixth in the two-man, but they will have to find something special to get past the German favourites at the Olympics. Adele Nicoll, who was the travelling reserve at Beijing 2022, will compete in both the monobob and two-woman events.
Between successful bobsleigh seasons, 2025 also saw Nicoll claim her third British shot put title. She is joined in the two-woman by fellow track and field convert Ashleigh Nelson, who made her international debut in the sport last year.
Natalie Dunman, Team GB team leader for bobsleigh and skeleton at the Games, said: “We head to Cortina after a really positive Olympic Cycle in which both sports have won multiple World Championship and World Cup medals.
"The squad have demonstrated their strength in depth, with those medals shared across both bobsleigh and skeleton and across the men’s and women’s teams, and the athletes have regularly shown that they can compete with the best in the world."We believe we have a solid platform for success in Italy but we know that repeating those performances on the Olympic stage will require a huge effort from all the athletes and staff. We are quietly confident that we can do the country proud but we certainly won’t be taking anything for granted and we know that we will have to be at our very best if we are to achieve our aims next month."
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Toby Davis)
The Winter Olympics is a major international multi-sport event held every four years, featuring winter sports such as skiing, ice skating, and snowboarding.
Skeleton is a winter sliding sport where an individual makes timed runs while lying face down on a small sled down a narrow, twisting, banked, and icy track.
Bobsleigh is a team winter sport where teams of two or four make timed runs while navigating a track in a specially designed sled.
A medal count refers to the total number of medals won by a country or team during a sporting event, typically categorized into gold, silver, and bronze.
A mixed team event is a competition where teams are composed of both male and female athletes, competing together in various sports.
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