Clare Balding was forced to step in and comfort a tearful Lizzy Yarnold live on BBC television after Matt Weston delivered a history-making skeleton gold at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
The emotional scenes unfolded moments after Weston powered to Team GB’s first medal of the Games in Italy, producing one of the most commanding Olympic performances in recent memory.
But as Britain celebrated on the ice, there were equally powerful scenes inside the studio.
Yarnold, the double Olympic champion turned pundit, began analysing Weston’s triumph before her voice faltered.
Fighting back tears, she described the magnitude of the moment, calling it an overwhelming experience that felt almost surreal.
As she cupped her mouth in an effort to compose herself, Balding gently intervened, telling her she would give her a moment to recover.
For Yarnold, gold medallist at Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018, it was clearly more than just analysis.
Clare Balding was forced to step in and comfort a tearful Lizzy Yarnold live on BBC television after Matt Weston delivered a history-making skeleton gold at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics
|BBC
It was a reminder of her own Olympic journey and the rarefied air that comes with standing atop the podium.
Weston, 28, had left no room for doubt on the track.
The British slider stormed to victory with a combined time of 3:43.33, finishing 0.88 seconds clear of the field. That margin stands as the second largest winning gap in Olympic skeleton history.
Matt Weston’s family got to witness every second of that winning run right in the thick of it ♥ pic.twitter.com/HqcoxE9Cig
— TNT Sports (@tntsports) February 14, 2026
Run after run, he rewrote the script. In fact, he broke his own track record on each descent, underlining his supremacy in Cortina.
From the moment he launched himself from the start block, he looked untouchable.
Yarnold had earlier described all four runs as near flawless, praising Weston’s focus and acceleration.
She highlighted the intensity in his eyes at the start line and admitted she struggled to find words to capture the scale of his display.
The victory carries historic significance.
Weston is the first British man to win an individual Winter Olympic gold medal since Robin Cousins triumphed on the ice in 1980. He also becomes the first Team GB athlete to win Olympic gold in the men’s skeleton.
Matt Weston won Team GB their first-ever gold medal in skeleton | GETTYBacked by fiancée Alex Howard-Jones and family trackside, Weston had arrived in Italy as the overwhelming favourite.
Yet expectation only sharpened his edge. A former taekwondo and rugby player, he spoke afterwards of the sacrifices behind the success.
He admitted the medal meant everything, revealing he had missed funerals and birthdays in pursuit of Olympic glory.
He also thanked those closest to him and even acknowledged National Lottery players whose funding underpins British Olympic sport, insisting he hoped he had made them proud.
Despite previous triumphs at World and European Championships, Weston confessed this achievement eclipsed them all. He described feeling almost numb as the reality sank in.
His fiancée could barely contain her pride, saying she had predicted gold and was overwhelmed by what he had accomplished.