Fly Like An Eagle

Michael Edwards, better known as Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, was the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping and was the British ski jumping record holder. A good downhill skier, he narrowly missed out on the GB team for that event for the 1984 Games. To improve his chances to qualify for 1988, he moved to Lake Placid in the US to train and enter races of a higher standard. However, he soon found himself short on funds. To realize his Olympic dream he decided to switch to ski jumping. Qualifying would be easier as there were no other competing British ski jumpers.

Eddie began jumping in Lake Placid, using his own equipment though he had to wear six layers of socks to make the boots fit.

He was handicapped by his weight which was more than 9 kg (20 lb) heavier than the next heaviest competitor and by a lack of financial support for training - he was totally self-funded.

Another problem was that he was very far sighted, requiring him to wear his glasses at all times even though these fogged to such an extent that he could not see. Eddie was informed of his qualification for the Games whilst working as a plasterer and residing temporarily in a Finnish mental hospital (he was not a patient) due to a lack of funds for alternative accommodation. Edwards first represented Great Britain at the 1987 World Championships and was ranked 55th in the world. This performance qualified him as the sole British applicant for the 1988 Winter Olympics ski jumping competition. Amazingly, his lack of success endeared him to people all across the globe.

The worse he did, the more popular he became.

He subsequently became a media celebrity and appeared on talk shows around the world, even appearing on The Tonight Show during the Games. At the closing ceremony, the president of the Organizing Committee, Frank King, seemed to single out Edwards for his contribution: "At these Games, some competitors have won gold, some have broken records, and some of you have even soared like an eagle." At that moment, 100,000 people in the stadium roared "Eddie! Eddie!". It was the first time in the history of the games that an individual athlete had been mentioned in the closing speech. Despite the obstacles and challenges, Eddie The Eagle had the courage and desire to choose an alternative sport so that he could compete in the Olympics. He achieved his Personal Best! "Courtesy of Wikipedia"