CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Britain's Matt Weston waited a lifetime to capture his first Olympic skeleton gold medal. He only needed to wait two days for his second title, capping the Milan Cortina Games in the finest possible fashion.
Weston and Tabitha Stoecker won the mixed skeleton event on Sunday night, their two-run combined time of 1 minute, 59.36 seconds good enough to get another Olympic gold for Britain — its fifth in skeleton since 2010, by far the most of any nation in that span.
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United States' Austin Florian, left, and United States' Mystique Ro celebrate at the finish during the skeleton mixed team competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Germany's Axel Jungk, left, and Germany's Susanne Kreher, right, celebrate at the finish during the skeleton mixed team competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Germany's bronze medalists Christopher Grotheer, right, and Germany's Jacqueline Pfeifer, left, celebrate at the finish during the skeleton mixed team competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Britain's gold medalists Matt Weston, left, and Britain's Tabitha Stoecker, right, celebrate at the finish during the skeleton mixed team competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Britain's gold medalists Matt Weston, right, and Britain's Tabitha Stoecker, left, celebrate at the finish during the skeleton mixed team competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Weston won the men's skeleton gold medal on Friday night. Stoecker was fifth in the women's skeleton Olympic race that ended Saturday night.
Germany didn't win any golds in the three Olympic skeleton races — but it won everything else, grabbing silver and bronze in each of those events. Susanne Kreher and Axel Jungk were second in 1:59.53, while Jacqueline Pfeifer and Christopher Grotheer were third in 1:59.54.
Kreher and Jungk also won individual silvers in Cortina; Pfeifer and Grotheer also won individual bronzes in Cortina. Jungk, Pfeifer and Grotheer are now the first three-time skeleton medalists in Olympic history.
It came down to the final duo, Stoecker and Weston.
Stoecker crossed the line three-tenths of a second behind Kreher's time, meaning Weston — who set track records in all four of his heats in the men's event — had work to do going into his final slide of these Olympics.
He didn't wait long, getting into the lead early in his run and letting the sled do the work from there.
Mystique Ro and Austin Florian, the world champions in this event last year for the U.S., were seventh. Kelly Curtis and Dan Barefoot were 10th for the Americans.
The mixed team event was in the Olympic program for the first time. Athletes — one man and one woman on each team — start their run after a series of lights stop flashing, and the reaction time weighs heavily on whether a team has a chance of winning. Starting early leads to time being added as a penalty.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
United States' Austin Florian, left, and United States' Mystique Ro celebrate at the finish during the skeleton mixed team competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Germany's Axel Jungk, left, and Germany's Susanne Kreher, right, celebrate at the finish during the skeleton mixed team competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Germany's bronze medalists Christopher Grotheer, right, and Germany's Jacqueline Pfeifer, left, celebrate at the finish during the skeleton mixed team competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Britain's gold medalists Matt Weston, left, and Britain's Tabitha Stoecker, right, celebrate at the finish during the skeleton mixed team competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Britain's gold medalists Matt Weston, right, and Britain's Tabitha Stoecker, left, celebrate at the finish during the skeleton mixed team competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
ATLANTA (AP) — Lots of candidates pitch themselves as political outsiders. Derek Dooley goes a step further. Not only is the former football coach running for the first time, he says he did not vote for nearly two decades.
He did not vote when Republican Donald Trump was first elected president in 2016. Nor did he vote in 2020, when Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
But Dooley does not worry about that as he seeks the Republican nomination to face off against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia. He insists that Washington needs someone with a fresh outlook, someone who is not focused on “their own political career or their political ambitions.”
Besides, lots of people do not vote, and Dooley told The Associated Press that he wants to inspire more people to do so.
“If you’re not vigilant in exercising that right, things can go pretty sideways in our country,” he said.
Dooley’s opponents in the May 19 primary include two congressmen, Mike Collins and Buddy Carter. Although Dooley supports Trump, Collins and Carter are more closely identified with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” brand. With support from the more establishment Gov. Brian Kemp, Dooley will test whether his outsider narrative is compelling at a time when Trump’s antiestablishment movement already dominates the nation's capital.
The primary winner will be among the most important Republican candidates in this year’s midterm elections, with a chance to help the party preserve its thin Senate majority by ousting Ossoff.
Dooley is the son of legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley. Derek Dooley worked as a lawyer before he started coaching. He led the University of Tennessee but was fired after a losing record. He then worked as an assistant coach for other colleges as well as professional teams.
He stepped away from the sidelines after the 2023 season, and Dooley said coaching people from a range of backgrounds will help him connect with Georgia’s diverse voting population.
“In my 30-plus years professional career, it’s never been about me in anything I was doing,” he said. “It’s about people.”
Dooley said he got interested in politics during Biden’s presidency, when he was upset about lax border enforcement, economic policies and support for transgender athletes. He has criticized Ossoff over the same issues. Dooley said he resumed voting in 2022, when he backed Kemp for governor, and he voted for Trump in 2024.
Republican strategist Brian Robinson said “you can tell this wasn’t a guy who spent his life in politics or around politics or consumed by politics.”
Kemp was close with Dooley’s family growing up, and he endorsed Dooley for Senate, putting establishment heft behind the political novice.
“I was looking for a political outsider, and it just happened to be a guy that I’ve known for, you know, 50-plus years,” Kemp said on stage with Dooley during an event with the Atlanta Young Republicans on Thursday.
Kemp and Dooley drew cheers from many in the crowd. Several people at the event said they had not decided on their primary choice but appreciated Dooley’s outsider perspective.
The relationship between Dooley and Kemp does not impress others.
“Completely siloing yourself with the old, establishment governor is not a way to say you’re an outsider,” said Courtlyn Cook, chair of the Glynn County Republicans in southeast Georgia. She said voters will remember that Kemp and Trump have not always gotten along, a key issue when the president enjoys deep support from the party's base.
Dooley’s ties with Kemp are a target for political opponents.
Devon Cruz, senior communications adviser for the Democratic Party of Georgia, described Dooley as someone with “access to the Governor’s political machine.” Harley Adsit, a spokesperson for Carter’s campaign, called Dooley the “ultimate insider.”
Canton voter Venessa Artigas, 53, likes Kemp and understands why some of her friends used to not vote, so she will likely support Dooley.
“I think we need to get career politicians out and get the voice of the people in,” said Artigas, who attended a local event for the conservative organization Turning Point Action.
University of West Georgia student Timothy Jackson, 19, is planning to vote for Collins because of his close ties to Trump, but is open to Carter.
“Both of them have been in Congress and so they know what it takes,” Jackson said. “Dooley is going to be hard because he’s never been in that position before.”
A Kemp-linked group funded an advertisement for Dooley last fall blaming Collins and Carter for the government shutdown, lumping them in with Ossoff.
Carter, a pharmacist, has been a political fixture along Georgia’s coast for nearly three decades. Collins is a trucking company co-owner and the son of a former congressman.
“Republicans are going to face an uphill battle, but Dooley doesn’t bring the baggage that other candidates could possibly bring and can speak not only to voters on the right and Republicans, but the voters in the center who will make the decision,” said longtime Republican consultant Jason Shepherd. “Jon Ossoff has a voting record that Dooley can run on and pick apart. Dooley does not.”
Dooley said he wants to boost workforce training and reduce home prices by cutting back government regulation. He also praised the Trump administration’s capture of Nicolás Maduro, who was ousted as Venezuela's president by the U.S. military in January, and blamed immigrants for reducing the number of available homes for U.S. citizens. Dooley promised to introduce legislation to prevent lawmakers from using taxpayer money to send campaign-related materials, which he accused Collins of doing improperly.
A spokesperson for Collins said his actions were approved by the House Communications Standards Commission, and he criticized Dooley as “a washed-up lawyer and failed coach.”
Robinson, the GOP strategist, said Dooley will need to explain to Georgians why being an outsider matters enough to earn their votes.
“It’s a well-worn path. The saliency of that message probably depends on the mood of the country and the cycle that we’re in,” Robinson said. “I don’t think we know just yet if that outsider message is what people are looking for.”
FILE - Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley, right, congratulates Tauren Poole (28) after he scored in the first quarter of an NCAA college football game against Middle Tennessee, Nov. 5, 2011, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)
Derek Dooley, left, a Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, listens as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks during an Atlanta Young Republicans campaign event Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alyssa Pointer)
A political campaign sign for Derek Dooley, a Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, is displayed during an Atlanta Young Republicans campaign event Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alyssa Pointer)
Derek Dooley, a Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, listens to questions during an Atlanta Young Republicans campaign event Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alyssa Pointer)
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, right, listens as Derek Dooley, left, a Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, speaks during an Atlanta Young Republicans campaign event Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alyssa Pointer)
Derek Dooley, a Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, listens to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, not pictured, speak during an Atlanta Young Republicans campaign event Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alyssa Pointer)
