Marcus Wyatt’s long pursuit of an Olympic podium will enter the home stretch in Milano Cortina.
The experienced skeleton champion will enter his second Olympic Games in the form of his life, following recent silvers in World and European Championships.
The 34-year-old will be looking for Team GB’s first medal since Dom Parsons’s success in PyeongChang, but will have to overcome a formidable force in his compatriot and teammate Matt Weston, among others.
Wyatt’s path to the Olympic spotlight was far from direct. This is how it unfolded.
First steps in sport
Born in Honiton, Wyatt showed few signs of becoming a slider as an age-group athlete and focused more on the likes of football and skateboarding.
As he grew older, he continued to expand his versatility, participating in sprinting and jumping events for his school.
His most impressive achievement at the time was a place in the line-up of his local team, Seaton Town FC, and making the South West Schools Champs in the long jump.
At university, Wyatt took on American football, becoming the treasurer of the Swansea Titans and winning the National Challenge Trophy.
A rise in Skeleton and the Olympic debut
The Devonian native first paid attention to skeleton through Power2Podium – a talent identification scheme created by the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games winner Lizzy Yarnold.
As an athlete with a diverse background in sports, he was able to apply the skills from football, athletics, and American football to a new discipline.
Wyatt successfully passed the trials and was admitted to the programme in late 2014, making his first Olympic appearance eight years later.
Spectators first saw him at the North American Cup in March 2016, and he then came tenth at his debut World Cup in Igls the following year.
In 2018, the future champion observed the PyeongChang 2018 Games as part of the British Olympic Association Ambitions Programme.
After several near misses, he claimed his first World Cup medal in 2020, the first won by a British man in seven years, after coming third in Sigulda.
He then made his Olympic debut in Beijing and finished in 16th place, a finish he has publicly stated he believed to be disappointing.
He said: “At my first Games, I allowed myself to be overawed and taken in by all these sights and sounds. It was a lot.”
International glory and the road to Milano Cortina
The slider rapidly improved in the post-Olympic season, collecting his first World Cup win in Whistler.
More success followed in subsequent seasons, and despite missing a medal by 0.01 seconds at the 2024 World Championships, he clinched his first European crown the same year.
Moreover, the 2024/25 season became his most successful season yet, as he claimed silver at the World and European Championships, as well as coming second in the overall World Cup behind Weston.
Wyatt said: “Everyone is at the top of their game at the moment. It’s a flow state.
“I feel like I am riding the crest of a wave at the moment. We have gone from strength to strength off the back of Beijing.
“I am ultimately super happy to be going into Cortina, aiming for a medal because it is absolutely possible.
“This time I know what to expect, from the village, from the food hall, from seeing the Olympic rings on the course.”
The never-ending love for American football
Away from skeleton, the Olympian holds a degree in psychology, but his main passions outside the track lie with Formula One and the previously mentioned NFL.
Wyatt has even admitted to losing sleep watching his beloved Buffalo Bills.
“I stayed up a bit too late to watch us miss out on another Super Bowl,” he said.
“There is 0.1 per cent of me who is happy I don’t have to make a decision in Cortina on whether I should stay up to 5 am, when I think we’ve got training the next morning. That decision was made for me.”
Sportsbeat 2026