Skeleton world champion Matt Weston plays down possible ban on new GB helmets
Weston has tasted victory in five of seven World Cup events this season.
Skeleton world champion Matt Weston has played down the significance of a possible ban on the new helmets the British athletes were due to wear at the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina.
The British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association (BBSA) lodged an appeal on Wednesday with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against a decision by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) to outlaw the team’s helmets, which have been ruled to be not compliant with existing regulations.
Weston is sanguine on the outcome of that appeal, instead focusing on the fact his current equipment has helped him to victory in five of seven World Cup events this season.
He told the Press Association: “It doesn’t really affect me too much, the equipment I have been using all year is what I can use at the Olympics and that hasn’t gone too badly for me.
“I’m not concerned – I’m just excited to get racing.
“It’s not getting in the way or anything, I’ve got other things I can focus on to kind of maximise my performance coming into the Olympics – this is an icing on the cake but I still need to make the cake at the moment.
“This is a sport that is won by hundredths of a second so for us as GB and the team we have around us, we’re constantly innovating from race week to race week.
“We try to push the boundaries and find those gains, this is just one of the parts of innovation we do as GB and I think we do it pretty well.”
Weston finished second to team-mate Marcus Wyatt in those two other World Cup races and he is similarly content to use the existing helmet if the British appeal is unsuccessful.
Wyatt said: “We’ve developed a new helmet that is a slightly different shape to what we’ve currently been using, but that is all it is really. We believe it is legal, it’s currently being debated.
“All of our success has been with our current helmet, so for me it is the tiniest little thing in the background.
“If it is legal then great, but I’m not worried – whatever we end up wearing, I think we’re in with a great shout of bringing some medals home.
“It’s such a small issue, it’s not really crossed any of our minds. It’s part and parcel of the things we have to change anyway, day to day, in a normal training and race period.
“I think at this point we are some of the best in the world and are just focusing on ourselves – just doing what we need to.”
