A very focused Matt Weston of Britain has midpoint lead in Olympic skeleton, with Heraskevych out

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Here's an idea of how focused Britain's Matt Weston is on winning Olympic gold.

When the World Cup champion and Olympic favorite showed up at the track for the start of the men's skeleton on Thursday, he was expecting that Ukraine's Vladyslav Heraskevych would be one of the contenders for a medal.

Heraskevych, though, was disqualified from the race before it started. It was the biggest story at the Olympics on Thursday. It was happening literally at the track, just before the start of the competition.

Weston had no idea until hours later.

''I had someone shove a mic in my face saying, ‘What about this?''' Weston said. "And I'm like, ‘Well, I hadn't heard of it.'''

Locked in on the race and nothing else, Weston moved two steps closer to Olympic gold. He had the fastest time in both heats and is the leader going into Friday's final two runs, reaching the halfway mark with a time of 1 minute, 52.09 seconds.

The gap is not a wide one. Two Germans — reigning Olympic silver medalist Axel Jungk and reigning Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer — are right there in second and third, Jungk sitting 0.30 seconds back and Grotheer 0.46 seconds off the pace.

Austin Florian had the best start in the field — a good sign for the mixed team event later this week — and is 13th for the U.S. Dan Barefoot is 19th despite dealing with a fairly significant shoulder injury.

Florian was aware that Heraskevych had been kicked out, since the Ukrainian was supposed to start right before he did in the first heat.

''We're generally pretty focused on what we're doing. We're aware of it,'' Florian said. ''Everyone's aware of it, obviously. And we try not to let it affect us, but you've got to do what you've got to do and he's going to do what he's going to do at the end of the day. And it's a bummer.''

Weston isn't thinking much about the political ramifications. He likes Heraskevych, considers him a contender as a slider — and in perhaps the best compliment, said he studies the Ukrainian's driving style as part of the process of devising his own strategies.

''I think he's an insane slider. He's really, really good, very technical, very smooth,'' Weston said. ''I get him on the push, but he's always one that I look at his (driving) lines to see what he's doing because he's always pretty consistent, pretty good. I think he could have done very well here. Another reason why I'm a bit gutted for him as a person. I think it's just sad.''