BBC Forced to Apologize After Missing Matt Weston's Gold Medal Start
The BBC was compelled to issue an embarrassing apology after failing to capture the beginning of Matt Weston's historic gold medal run at the Winter Olympics. This incident occurred during a remarkable 'Super Sunday' for Team GB in Milan and Cortina, where records were shattered across slopes and chutes.
Team GB's Glorious Winter Olympics Performance
Team GB's success reached new heights with Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale securing the first-ever snow gold in mixed team snowboard-cross. Just five hours later, Matt Weston and Tabby Stoecker triumphed in the mixed team skeleton event. Weston had already won gold in the men's skeleton on Friday, bringing Team GB's total to three gold medals. This achievement raises hopes that the final medal count will surpass the five golds earned in Sochi and Pyeongchang.
Weston's Incredible Comeback and Broadcast Blunder
Weston delivered another stunning performance, finding himself in fourth place and three-tenths behind after Stoecker lost time on the bottom stages of the run. Demonstrating the skill and composure that earned him three consecutive World Cup titles and Britain's first men's Olympic skeleton gold, he blasted off at the start to immediately close the gap. He then found the perfect line to win by 0.17 seconds.
However, Weston's rapid start was missed by TV cameras, which instead focused on his coach. A graphic in the corner showed his 0.12-second reaction time, but the main screen was fixed on the Team GB coach shouting encouragement. Although this gaffe was not the BBC's fault—the feed came from the Olympic broadcast—commentator John Hunt felt obliged to apologize.
'Oh, what are they doing? What are they playing at? That's terrible,' Hunt said. 'That's a great start. Sorry about the pictures but Matt is on his way.'
Celebrating a Stunning Achievement
Despite the broadcasting error, the achievement of the British duo remains undiminished. A jubilant Weston expressed his honor at being mentioned alongside great British Winter Olympians. 'I think to even consider putting my name next to those is a massive honour,' he said. 'I don't want to be the one to say what position I am in there, but to have my name next to those is absolutely amazing. A lot of those guys have been a massive inspiration, especially within the sliding sports as well.'
Weston was unaware of the ground he needed to make up on silver medalists Susanne Kreher and Axel Jungk, focusing solely on his start. 'When I'm at the top of the track I kind of put my helmet just low enough that I can't see what the splits are,' he explained. 'All I was doing was listening to my coach telling me the timings and all I could think was don't false start. I was just staying very calm and trying to be collected, just tick the boxes, get the job done and hopefully that would have been enough and it turns out it was.'
Stoecker, who finished fifth in the women's competition on Saturday, had full confidence in Weston's abilities. 'What an honour—it's incredible,' she said. 'The medal is really heavy, it's gold and I get to share it with Matt. It's more than I could have ever hoped for. I think I crossed the line and then all I was really focused on was getting to the TV screen to watch Matt come down. He's the individual Olympic champion and his standard of sliding is insane. So I had a lot of faith that he was going to lay down another exceptional run.'
