Skinner was born the elder of two boys with a younger brother, Roy in Glasgow, Scotland. He moved to Bruntsfield, Edinburgh at the age of 12 and attended James Gillespie's High School. He took up cycling in 2004, inspired by Chris Hoy's success in the sport at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. In 2008 he was national youth champion and broke Hoy's British 200m record for his age group. Later that year he was the inaugural winner of the Chris Hoy Trophy, an award presented to Edinburgh's most promising young track cyclist, and received the award from Hoy himself.
Career
In 2010 Skinner joined British Cycling's Senior Academy. Skinner competed representing Scotland in the team sprint at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, finishing fourth. The following year he took two medals at the Under-23 European Track Championships, winning a bronze in the individual sprint and a silver in the team sprint alongside Peter Mitchell and Philip Hindes. He did not get the opportunity to compete at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London due to a lump in his neck in late 2011 which doctors initially thought was lymphoma. Biopsies later proved that the lump was not cancerous but the scare had caused him to take time away from the sport. He was subsequently promoted to the British Cycling Olympic Podium Programme in 2013. In January 2014 he won his first World Cup medal, placing third in the team sprint in Guadalajara, and once again represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games. He came to prominence at the 2014 British National Track Championships, winning a clean sweep of four national sprint titles. In October 2014, he became European champion in the 1 km time trial. In January 2016 Skinner was a member of the team that won the overall title for the men's team sprint at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Hong Kong. In March he finished eighth in the individual sprint in the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London. At the 2016 Summer Olympics he was part of the team that won gold in the men's team sprint along with Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny, setting an Olympic record of 42.440 in the final against New Zealand. He won the silver medal in the men's individual sprint, beating Matthew Glaetzer 2–0 in the semi-final but he was beaten 2–0 by defending champion Kenny in an all-British final. In February 2019 it was announced that Skinner had been appointed to the position of Lead Athlete with Global Athlete, a self-described "athlete-led movement for change" aiming to advance the interests of sportspeople: in this role he would be responsible for recruiting other athletes to the organisation. The following month he announced his retirement from competition in order to focus on advocating improvements in sportspeople's rights and working conditions. He also supports equality for LGBTQ athletes.
