Matt Weston

[Peachofacross]

Brilliant! Only the 13th ever Gold medal for Great Britain at the Winter Olympics

Great win. It'll be all downhill from here.....

[Fbaggie]

I just don't understand how you get into that as a sport. Well unless you're holding a dinner tray whilst fooling around with a mate, who then pushes you down the slope and you somehow find out you're good at avoiding death.

Played rugby at a young age to a reasonable standard got injured and could no longer play, took part in the UK sports programme where they measure all sorts of parameters to see which sports you might be good at and he was selected for the Skeleton and decided to give it a go.

A friends of ours son was selected by this programme for rowing but didn't quite make the grade in the end.

[Old Fart]

I just don't understand how you get into that as a sport. Well unless you're holding a dinner tray whilst fooling around with a mate, who then pushes you down the slope and you somehow find out you're good at avoiding death.

he says that he was a Taekwondo champion but had a bad injury which stopped him competing. 

He saw an open day advertised  inviting anyone to come and be assessed for a suitable sport.  They then send the results away and your particular profile of strength, size, sprinting speed, weight etc is matched against a list of specific requirements to excel at a particular sport.

The results came back that he was ideally suited to bombing down an ice shute at 90 mph on a tea tray so he joined the UK team to train specifically for that,   and the rest is history.

He was also a very good rugby union player and a self-confessed adrenalin junkie. I have to say the training regime shown on BBC yesterday was gruelling. A lot of very heavy weight lifting particularly squats which is why all competitors have Jo Brand sized thighs ( that's illustrative rather than a confirmed fact).

[baggiebloke]

I'm about to eat and read a post with comments about Jo Brand's thighs.

[DemonicBaggie]

I'm about to eat and read a post with comments about Jo Brand's thighs.

So you decided to switch activities?

[MrBater]

One wonders what attributes you have to have to be assessed as brilliant for that insane sport?

Fear - Less than none
Insanity - Loads and loads
Likes the Cold - oh yes
Has a penchant for tight fitting outfits - specialist club attendee
Likes lying down on the job - it's what I was made for.

[Derek Hardballs]

One wonders what attributes you have to have to be assessed as brilliant for that insane sport?

Fear - Less than none
Insanity - Loads and loads
Likes the Cold - oh yes
Has a penchant for tight fitting outfits - specialist club attendee
Likes lying down on the job - it's what I was made for.

Strength, reactions and sprinting? Cornering puts 5G of pressure n your neck the equivalent of F1.

[Astle is better than Pele]

Reaching the Olympics and being in the top ten, as many of or athletes have is no small achievement.

They'll not be happy in the US tonight, that's the second figure skating gold they've failed to get.

We have a pairing in figure skating tomorrow. They are meant to be quite good.

Dancing isn’t a sport

[baggiebloke]

My claim to fame is a lad with the same name was in my year.

A Dingle, was he not?

[Astle is better than Pele]

Josh the only one above a 3 so far

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Don’t worry Mad Madge will read them the riot act at HT.