British Bobsleigh and Skeleton athletes are gearing up for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympic Games in Italy in February, after months of training at the University of Bath. The university’s world-class training base – the only push-start track in the UK – has long been the heart of the nation’s sliding sports. Building on a proud Olympic legacy, Bath’s athletes will once again take to the ice track with the skill, strength, and determination that have made the university a cornerstone of Team GB’s success in these two sports.
The 140-metre push-start track replicates the crucial first seconds of an Olympic run, allowing athletes to perfect their explosive starts and sled control on dry land before heading to ice. Using sleds fitted with wheels, competitors focus on sprint power, timing, and coordination, skills that can decide races measured in hundredths of a second. The university is currently home to the two best male skeleton athletes in the world, Matt Weston (World Champ 2023 and 2025) and Marcus Wyatt (World silver-medallist 2025), plus three women ranked in the world’s top 10 – Amelia Coltman, Tabby Stoecker, and Freya Tarbit.
We’ve got the best support team, best equipment in the world, and the support within the athlete team is completely unrivalled
British Skeleton
Matt Weston – British Skeleton, reigning World Champion
“Excitement is probably the overriding feeling. Obviously, there’s a little bit of underlying nerves, but I think the fact that I’ve had a very successful few years going into this one it’s going to set me up.
“There is that added pressure of coming into the season as a two-time World Champion, aiming for obviously the top step of the podium at the Games. But at the same time, there’s a lot of confidence that comes from having success over the past three years, and that consistent success as well kind of adds to that feeling of confidence going into it.
“I think one of the biggest things that separates British Skeleton compared to some of the other nations we race against is how much we work as a team. Although we’re in an individual sport, I work a lot with my teammate Marcus Wyatt. We share things with each other that most nations wouldn’t share between the athletes, including racing lines, what we’re trying to work on, what’s making us fast, and by doing that, it means that we can fight each other for one and two in the world, which is the position we’re at now, rather than 5th and 6th. We work together to make each other better. That teamwork and constant trying to push each other and be better than each other, whilst helping each other, helps us get to that next level.
“The fact that the whole team is based here in Bath means we are not just with each other during the season, but we’re with each other throughout the summer as well, which helps that team environment. We know each other so well. It makes all these tough situations that you might go through a lot easier.”
Jacob Salisbury
“You don’t really think too much about the Olympics because there’s so much you have to navigate to get there. I’m just excited to get onto the ice and put all of the work into practice.
“The success of people like Matt Weston, Marcus Wyatt, and the girls over the past three years has pulled everyone along and lifted the entire programme. When you’re training with the best in the world, you can’t help but also improve.
“We’re a close-knit training group because we spend so much time together. We all get along so well that we all try and push each other. And you get this really good mutually beneficial sort of competition that we have. So, if Matt goes and pushes fast on the push track, then I’ll be next, and I’ll want to push fast as well. A successful programme like ours isn’t just one person being successful; everyone rises together.”
Amelia Coltman
“We’ve been training really, really hard here at the University of Bath. We’ve been based here full-time since April last year, putting in the hard yards that nobody sees. I’m probably in the best shape I’ve been in for many, many years.
“The start in skeleton is so important because if you’re, say, more than two-tenths of a second behind the fastest pusher, you’re going to have a really hard time winning a medal. If you’ve got that really fast push, you’re almost off to a head start, and you’re ahead of the pack, so it’s a very advantageous thing to have.
“I think the success over the last three years for the British Skeleton team has been multifaceted. We’ve got the best support team, best equipment in the world, and the support within the athlete team is completely unrivalled. It’s just like a family. We’re absolute competitors on the track, but off it we raise each other up and push each other to be better.”
British Bobsleigh
Brad Hall (GBR1 men’s two-man and four-man pilot)
“We’ve got a lot of expectation going into this year because we’ve had three great years. We’ve won European Championships, we’ve won countless World Cup medals, World Championship medals, World Cup overall globes….the success has been phenomenal. We’re going with a lot of confidence. We want to win a gold medal, that’s the aim, but we’ll settle for a medal at the end of it.
“There are a lot of things that we need to focus on. We don’t have our own tracks here in the UK, and we haven’t had extreme amounts of funding over the last few years. We’ve done very well with what we’ve got, but it’s definitely not on the same scale as what the Germans have, for example. We’ve got to be very specific on what we focus on. I’m turning over every stone, looking at every single element of our performance and trying to optimise that. I think that’s what we’ve done very well over the last few years – finding out what works, ignoring the things that don’t actually play any part, and focusing on the things that really give us the performances we need.
“It’s massive to have the right people around you in terms of the teammates that you’ve got. It’s the brakemen, it’s the coaches, it’s the staff, the management. Everyone needs to be working together and to have the same goals and the same culture and work ethic, or else you’re just working against other people.”
Leon Greenwood (GBR1 brakeman)
“I joined the programme three years ago, so it’s been building all towards this point. A lot of pressure, but I’m really, really excited.
“The guys are going to kill me for saying this, but, like everyone else, I found out about bobsleigh through Cool Runnings, watching that film as a kid, and knowing it’s actually a sport. As I got older, I got to know a few people who did it, and they thought I’d be quite good at it. So, I came to a talent identification day, and it’s just built on from there.
“When I first started, in the summer after the 2022 Olympics, there was an opening for Brad Hall’s team. I got it, then broke my toe the following day and was out for the whole season. I was watching the guys on TV get medal after medal, literally every single race, and that made me think, “I want to be a part of that.” I got my opportunity the year later, won my first World Cup medal, and that was amazing.
“It’s looking good, but the other medals don’t matter when we get to the Olympics; it’s what we do on that day. I truly believe we’ve got the mindset and the team chemistry to succeed. We’re like brothers. A bobsleigh run takes a minute, but it’s the team camaraderie that makes us better.
“It was my childhood dream to become an Olympian. The biggest challenge for me personally is I’ve got a daughter at home, and she’s one. Being away from her and all of our families for so much of the winter is the biggest challenge. This sacrifice needs to be worth it and, for me, that means becoming an Olympian, so my eyes are set on that.”
Adele Nicoll (GB women’s two-man and monobob pilot)
“My background in sport is track and field. I’m the reigning British shot putt champion, but transferred into bobsleigh in 2021 and have been managing both sports since. As we’ve moved closer to the Olympic Games, my focus has been solely on making sure I’m in the best place possible for Milan.
“I was a brakewoman when I first started bobsleigh. My debut was in 2022 as brakewoman to pilot Mica McNeill, and we won Britain’s first female World Cup medal for 13 years that year. I then went on to win my own as a pilot with Kia Placide in March 2024 in Lake Placid.
“As a pilot, it’s really important to create a good, positive, open, safe space for your team. I’ve really tried to make sure the environment is one where the girls feel comfortable, can be themselves, and be there for each other. We’re all such disciplined athletes, and it’s about having that discipline individually, but then also coming together as a team to make sure we’re always doing what’s best for the team.
“When I came into the sport, even just to compete as a brakewoman, I had to completely redesign myself as an athlete. I lost 21 kilograms in body weight. My body composition completely changed, and I focused on my ability to move fast for more than 10 metres. Obviously, throwing is a power sport, but I never really needed that acceleration through 20, 30, 40 metres before.
“The pre-season here at Bath involves using the push sleds, which essentially are on wheels on a rail system that goes about 15, 20 metres on the flat and then starts to go downhill, and then the gravity brings it back up. We do that twice a week, and then focus a lot on our speed drills, looking at the mechanics of how we run and how we apply force. We spend a lot of time in the gym as well.
“My ambition for the season ahead is firstly to get the call up to say that I’ve been selected to go in both the monobob and the two-woman event. If I do get selected for the monobob, I believe that will be the first time in history that a female has competed in the monobob event for Great Britain. So that is obviously something that I’d be really proud of and just nice to know that I’m paving the way for British females.”
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