Skeleton-Britain's Weston takes unlikely route to gold medal favourite

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 8 : A junior taekwondo champion with a broken back from a country that does not boast a single sliding track, Briton Matt Weston is an unlikely star of skeleton, yet he arrives at the Olympics in Cortina as double world champion and hot favourite for gold.

After the teenage injury that ended his fighting career, Weston found skeleton at the age of 20 through the British Olympic Association's talent discovery scheme.

Eight years later, after a sobering experience at the Beijing Olympics, Weston is the dominant athlete in his sport.

Despite missing his usual pre-season preparation with a thigh tear, last month he sewed up a third successive World Cup title having won five of the seven races and finished second - to compatriot Marcus Wyatt - in the other two.

Both men will hope to medal in Cortina, with the target to get a first men's British gold in the event after the women have claimed three.

"Obviously, I've got a lot of confidence and a lot of momentum coming into this Olympics with the success I've had but I'm still not taking my foot off the gas," said Weston, who starts his bid on Thursday.

"It's the Olympics. People bring their best performances, so you have to make sure that you're there doing that as well.

"But I'm like 'I am the best in the world' and I'm trying to take it as confidence going in. I've learned to use that pressure and expectation as a positive for me, rather than letting it weigh me down."

PAINFUL BEIJING DEBRIEF

Like many elite athletes, Weston learned a lot from when things did not go to plan as he travelled to the Beijing Olympics with high hopes, only to finish 15th - a huge four seconds behind the winner.

A painful debrief followed and Weston says the work he has done