To cap off skeleton competition at Milan Cortina 2026, the mixed team event made its Olympic debut on Sunday at Cortina Sliding Centre.
It was the first time in Olympic history that skeleton athletes had the opportunity to take home two medals at the same Games, and that’s exactly what Matt Weston did.
Weston, the men’s gold medalist on Saturday, saw his teammate Tabitha Stoecker lose time at the end of her run and proceeded to use his sheer on-track excellence to claw back several tenths of a second. At the end of his flawless run, he posted a track record and to earn his second gold medal at Milan Cortina. It was Stoecker’s first Olympic medal at her debut Games after she finished 5th in the women's event.
“I don’t have words. I actually can’t believe it," the 25-year-old Stoecker told reporters at Cortina Sliding Centre following the event. "We’re Olympic champions, as a team.”
Weston is now the first male skeleton athlete with multiple gold medals, and he joins fellow Brit Lizzy Yarnold as the only two skeleton athletes to win multiple golds.
"The individual event is amazing and I’m very pleased with that — but doing it as a team in an individual sport, and to have my teammate by my side being Olympic champions ... is absolutely mental," Weston told reporters. "It's crazy and I’m looking forward to the celebrations."
Taking silver was Germany's Susanne Kreher and Axel Jungk — each of their second of the Games after finishing 2nd in their respective singles events. The same went for Jacqueline Pfeifer and Christopher Grotheer, who took their second Olympic bronze medals at the so-called "House of Speed."
Non-traditional standing start gives and takes away
In this new Olympic event, fifteen teams composed of one female and one male athlete from the same country got one run each to set the lowest combined time.
Contrary to a luge relay, the two sliders do not set times continuously but rather with a standing, reaction-timed start. Athletes wait for five red lights to flash, and then start when the lights go out. That allows room for some to jump the gun, which is what first happened to Italian Valentina Margaglio.
It claimed another victim in women’s gold medalist Janine Flock of Austria, who surrendered 1.03 seconds to hers and Samuel Maier’s time after flinching half a second too early.
At the same time, that kind of start is what benefits a pair like Mystique Ro and Austin Florian, both of whom are known for their quickness in traditional skeleton starts. Florian had the 2nd-fastest start time (7.38 seconds) of the entire field. The two won the 2025 World Championship in the event but finished 7th on Sunday.
Kelly Curtis and Dan Barefoot finished 10th. The two were the first Americans to hit the track in the event, starting 4th in the order.
