Skeleton competition will open at Milan Cortina 2026 on Thursday, Feb. 12, with Heat 1 of the men’s event beginning at 3:30 a.m. ET. Heat 2 will follow at 5:05 a.m., and medals will be awarded after Heat 4 on Friday, Feb. 13. 

Below the full schedule for skeleton competition:

Great Britain's Matt Weston is the reigning world champion and considered a heavy favorite in the event. Weston topped the second, third and fourth training runs before opting out of the final two sessions. This will be the 28-year-old's second Olympic Games after he finished 15th at Beijing 2022. 

"The track's in amazing condition," Weston told reporters at Cortina Sliding Centre after training runs on Feb. 9. "We're already flying past the official track record. It should be a really exciting race and quite close, actually."

Aside from his two world championships, Weston has been particularly dominant at the Skeleton World Cup and recently claimed his third straight overall title. 

Weston is vying for his country's best-ever Olympic result in the sport. Great Britain has three total skeleton medals, all of which are bronze. The country's last skeleton Olympic medalist was Dominic Parsons when he earned bronze at PyeongChang 2018.

The defending gold medalist in the event is German Christopher Grotheer, who is set to compete at his third Olympic Games. Grotheer's fellow countryman Axel Jungk, also competing at his third Games, will defend his silver medal. 

Italians Amadeo Bagnis and Mattia Gaspari will compete for the host nation in an event that has favored home sliders in the past. Yun Sung-bin won gold on his home track at PyeongChang 2018, as did Aleksandr Tretyakov at Sochi 2014 and Jon Montgomery at Vancouver 2010.

This will be just the ninth Olympic Games at which men’s skeleton is on the program. While it initially debuted at St. Moritz 1928 — where American Jennison Heaton won gold — it was not included from 1932-36 and from 1952-98. When skeleton returned for Salt Lake City 2002, Jimmy Shea won the gold medal on home soil. 

The United States leads the all-time men’s skeleton medal table with five total medals, but have not stood on the podium since Matthew Anthoine took home bronze at Sochi 2014. 

At Milan Cortina 2026, Team USA will have two representatives in Austin Florian and Dan Barefoot. Both will be making their Olympic debuts on Thursday. 

Florian has seen most of his skeleton world cup success come in the mixed team event, which is also debuting as an Olympic discipline at Milan Cortina on Sunday, Feb. 15.