World champion Matt Weston is still getting used to being coached by the GOAT.
British Skeleton’s incredible comeback season has been scripted by new head coach Martins Dukurs, the greatest to ever slide.
He is a six-time world champion, six-time European champion and took 61 World Cup wins across an unparalleled 22-year career.
Think of Michael Jordan teaching you to dunk or Tiger Woods grooving your swing - it’s an opportunity that Weston could barely dare to dream of.
“We spend a lot of time in Sigulda in Latvia which is Martins’ home track,” Weston said.
“We’d be walking through the town with him, around the hotel, and there would be people whispering about him, giggling, asking for selfies.
“He’s such a big name. No-one realises the impact he’s had over there.”
The chance to work with Dukurs may well have saved Weston’s career.
His Olympic debut was a tough one as he finished 15th - well short of the medals - in Beijing.
It led the 25-year-old to question his future in the sport but the addition of the Latvian and crucially, his sled builder Mattias Guggenberger, changed the game.
He said: “I can’t sugar coat the Olympics, it was tough. It hit all of us hard, at different times and in different ways.
“Once I found out Martins and Mattias were getting involved, that ignited my drive. It made other nations sit up and take notice and I had a lot of trust in what they could bring.
“The change in mindset has been massive and positive.”
In six World Cup races this season, Weston has won five medals.
He won back-to-back gold medals at Altenberg, the toughest track in the world, where two years ago his World Championship hopes were ended by a crash.
Weston’s World Championship victory in St Moritz was the first for a British man in 15 years and earned by a massive margin, 1.79 seconds.
Holding a convincing overnight lead after two runs, Dukurs was again key to Weston holding his nerve ahead of the second and final day.
“I’ve never led overnight at a World Championship before, but Martins has and that’s invaluable,” Weston said.
“He knows exactly what he wants from us. If we’re not achieving that - he’ll challenge us. He wants perfection and he knows what we can achieve as individuals.
“I react quite emotionally to things, like if I have a bad race, but he’s very calm and chilled about everything. Having someone like that holding my sled at the top of the track, it’s great.”
The scary thing for the rest of the world is that Weston and Dukurs have only raced together seven times.
Weston already has eyes on the 2026 Olympics in Milan-Cortina and rewriting that Olympic story.
“It’s mad, we’ve gone from where we were in Beijing to saying we’re not winning these races by a big enough margin,” said Weston.
“There’s still things I need to work on to make the set-up perfect for me on all different tracks, the coaches are still learning how I like to slide.
“We’ve started off very strong but there’s a long way to go. We’ve won more medals already this season than we did in the whole Beijing cycle.
“I’m feeling very confident already about what we can go and achieve in Milan.”
Sportsbeat 2023