Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, athlete
IT’S A BIRD, it’s a plane . . . well, no, it was actually a specky Englishman who soared into the history books when he competed at the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988. Michael Edwards, better known as Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, was 24 when he became Britain’s first-ever Olympic ski-jumper. The fact that he was also the worst ski-jumper in the competition didn’t matter. Despite coming last in both the 70m and 90m contests, Edwards quickly soared to international fame, and became an inspiration for have-a-go athletes everywhere.
But though he cut a cartoon figure at Calgary, thanks to his milk-bottle glasses (which fogged up during his jump, making it impossible for him to see properly), prominent underbite and hapless expression, the plasterer from Cheltenham was actually an experienced downhill skier, and had already been ski-jumping in international competitions for the previous two winters. He needed to jump 70 metres in a world cup contest to qualify for the Olympics – he fell short by just half a metre, but was allowed to enter anyway.
The British Olympic Association soon regretted letting him compete, believing that he brought ridicule on the sport – and on his home country. His feat of failure prompted the introduction of a strict new rule, known as the Eddie The Eagle Rule, designed to prevent subsequent have-a-go athletes from qualifying. By then, however, Eddie the Eagle was a household name, appearing on chat shows around the world, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Despite failing to qualify for the Olympics in Albertville, Lillehammer and Nagano, Edwards had no shortage of promotional offers, from opening big fairground rides at Alton Towers and Blackpool Pleasure Beach to appearing in TV adverts for Ford, Yellow Pages and Specsavers. But despite earning a fortune in appearance fees and sponsorship deals, he was declared bankrupt in 1992. He blamed the executors of a trust fund for his financial losses.
Edwards now lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire, with his wife and two kids. He still works as a plasterer, using his real name of Michael Edwards, and also runs his own PR company, but is still in demand, in his alter-ego of Eddie the Eagle, for after-dinner speaking and product launches. He used some of his earnings to get laser-eye treatment and dental work to correct his underbite. Last month, he took on a job as commentator at the Asian Winter Games in Kazakhstan, but wasn’t impressed by some of the competitors. “I would have been able to beat one or two of the Chinese guys,” he observed.
A long-mooted movie about Edwards is finally due to go into production, directed by Irishman Declan Lowney, who directed two series of Father Ted. Edwards, however, was unhappy to hear that Steve Coogan had originally been slated to play the title role, worried that his character would come across as Alan Partridge on skis. “I don’t want them to turn my story into a big joke,” he told the Independent. Rupert Grint, star of the Harry Potter films, will be playing the role of the whizzer, replacing his broomstick with a pair of skis.
