Full video

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Skeleton racing. The sport where you go

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face first on an ice track at speeds of

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up to 19 m an hour. Danger, adrenaline,

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drama. What speed?

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Coming up, two of Great Big Story's most

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gullible and competitive producers got

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to try it out. He said he was pretty

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good. That's kind of annoying. We

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learned how to properly warm up. This

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bit shouldn't be the hard bit.

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Got to see the best in action. Yeah,

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he's all right. That was pretty good. We

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learned about the origins of the sport

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and why it's called skeleton. It's not

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because when you go down it's so risky

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you might die and become a skeleton.

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All culminating in one race. Be the

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penguin. It's what I practice for.

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A race years and years in the making.

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After two decades of fierce friendship,

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it all came down to this. Stick around

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to see who wins.

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You already know why we're here. So,

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what you might not know is that we're

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the fastest skeleton racer in the world.

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Matt Weston.

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Matt is the twotime skeleton world

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champion among other accolades.

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Matt is just back from Lake Placid, New

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York. He won his second skeleton world

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championship by a world record margin.

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Next on his radar is winning the 2026

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Olympic gold medal. Yes. But first, he's

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got some new competition. Us. Did you

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make these lists? Nah, these are just

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stats I found online.

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So, Matt, where are we? Well, right now

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we're in Bath. We're on what we call the

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push track, which is the only place in

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the country where we can train to do

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skeleton. First off, we've got to warm

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up. Get those big muscles of yours

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ready.

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Behind me, you should look exactly the

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same. Yep. The resemblance is uncanny.

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We're struggling already, which is

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obviously a good sign. I do this every

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day, mate. That's very high.

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Don't get injured in the warmup. Don't

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get injured in the warm up. Yeah, I

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know. Oh dear.

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Nice. We're going to get into some

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pushing and get you guys feeling what

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it's like to actually be a skeleton

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athlete, but going to need to look the

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part. And I've got you two some

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beautiful presents. Go and put these bad

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boys on. All right. But first, what even

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is skeleton and where did it come from?

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Well, we need to rewind back to the

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1800s and traveled to Samurit,

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Switzerland, where some adrenaline

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loving Brits decided that toboggoning

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wasn't quite enough for them. On the

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famous icy slopes known as the Crest

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Run, they went head first down the track

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and instead of steering with fancy

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equipment, they just used their

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shoulders and body weight to career down

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the ice at breakneck speeds. Mad as it

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sounds, the sport found legitimacy and

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it appeared in the 1928 and 1948 Winter

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Olympic Game. Both of these events were

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on the original track in San Morettes.

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It wasn't until 2002 in Salt Lake City,

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Utah, that the skeleton flew back into

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the picture of both men's and women's

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event. But let's be honest, what we

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really want to know is what does it

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actually feel like to fly down an ice

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track at 19

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mph? Going head first down the track at

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that speed is pretty amazing. Like the

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feeling you get when you're on a nice

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line is unlike anything else. It's so

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hard to describe. Luckily, I've never

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come off and and lost my sled too badly,

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but there's been some there's been some

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times where I've hit some walls pretty

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hard and you can't really walk straight

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afterwards. It's called skeleton.

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Actually, that brings me nicely onto

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this because this rib cage kind of looks

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like a the rib cage of a skeleton. So,

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that's kind of half the reason why.

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There's also other stories that it looks

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like the skeleton of a bob sleigh. So,

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there's a few different stories why, but

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um it's not because when you go down

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it's so risky you might die and become a

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skeleton. Time to suit up.

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Now looking sexy, it was time to give it

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a go. Before it was our turn, Matt did a

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first run where he was timed to the

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bottom of the hill.

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Yeah, he's done that before.

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Yeah, he's all right. That was pretty

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good. Matt taking it easy got just 5

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seconds. He told us anything under seven

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would be a success. Very impressive.

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That was very good.

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When you jump on, you have to think

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you're like a a penguin or doing the

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worm. Four steps and then jump onto it

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like that. Chest

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first. There we go. Like a graceful

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penguin. He said he was pretty good.

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It's kind of

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annoying. I'll see how I do.

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1 2 3 4. Why do I look so slow? Then his

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feet kind of got caught underneath him

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and he couldn't really like then jump

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on. Basically ste. On that note, play

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time was over. You both put some good

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pushes in there. So, I'm I'm excited to

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see who wins. Sounds like a race. Yeah,

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it does. Let's go. Let's do it. All that

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was left to decide was who would go out

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first. You won. You can go first. That

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was a weird way to say it. In skeleton,

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you get two runs with a time edited

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together. It would all come down to

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this. In the zone. Every moment, every

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drop of sweat. This is

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[Music]

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it. Run one. And he's off. Whoa. He

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went. Oh, that was good. Actually, 6.8.

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I told you you'd get under

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seven. Climb speed. Climb speed.

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Oo, I stubbed my toe there. That was

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definitely his best one.

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[Music]

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Oh, okay. Okay. After the first runs,

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Archie was ahead by just over a tenth of

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a second. Just to put it into context, I

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was saying one blink of your eye is a

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tenth of a second. So, you're one and a

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half blinks off him.

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Run two.

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Oh,

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what? Oh, goodness gracious me. Okay,

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come on.

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Nice and calm. Relax. You know what to

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do. You've got a job to do. Be the

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penguin. It's all like practice.

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Now he's gone even quicker. It's not

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looking good for me.

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Have I done it? Nope. Oh, it's an

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improvement. It's an improvement.

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Archie takes gold. Great. Yeah. A good

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match. A very good match. Thank you. I'm

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very impressed by both of you actually.

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The commitment, the the athleticism just

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blew blew me away really. Do we have a

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future in this sport? Um, you definitely

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have a future whether it'll be um on the

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GB team. I know there was still time for

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one more

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competition. It was a chance for me to

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take my revenge.

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3 2 1 go.

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[Music]