![]() ![]() Four years later at Lake Placid, however, Edwards did enjoy one of the best results of his career when he finished 36th out of 44.Įdwards was trying to rebuild a career for himself and studied to be a solicitor. To make matters worse, Edwards lost his “British No.1” ranking in 1993 when James Lambert took it off him. Sadly, financial mismanagement resulted him subsequently filing for bankruptcy.Įdwards continued training, but in 1990 stricter qualification rules were imposed and they made it virtually impossible for Edwards to qualify for major international events, and when the IOC implemented the “Eddie the Eagle Rule”, any chance of him competing at the 1992 Winer Olympics were gone. ![]() Edwards suddenly went from being a £5,000-a-year plasterer, to a £10,000-an-hour speaker, and in the three years after his Calgary exploits, he was reputed to have earned £1 million. Edwards, however, would turn that failure into success.Īfter the Calgary Olympics, Edwards was in demand for television, and public appearances, and once appeared on the Johnny Carson Show in the United States. Edwards then went to the Calgary Olympics the following year with four other World Cup performances behind him, but his run of failure continued. He got his big break in 1987 when he was living and working in Finland and was invited to go to the World Skiing Championships in Oberstdorf, West Germany, having taken part in a World Cup event in the same town seven weeks earlier. As a decent downhiller, he had visions of getting on to the British skiing team, but when that failed he turned to ski jumping, financing himself along the way. He actually asked the question at those Games: “Where is it written that Olympics are only for winners?”Įdwards started skiing at the age of 13 after a failed footballing career. What Edwards did, however, was exemplify the spirit of the Olympic movement in an era when winning was important. None of it despite setting British records in both the Normal and Large Hill events, he came last in both. From that you would think he came away from the Games as a surprise medalist. ![]() He came as a no-hoper and left Calgary as a worldwide hero. With no chance of a medal, he arrived at Calgary Airport to be greeted by a group of fans carrying a banner saying: “Welcome to Calgary, Eddie The Eagle”, and that nickname stuck. Michael Thomas “Eddie” Edwards, a plasterer from Cheltenham with poor eyesight, went to the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics as the best British ski jumper. ![]()
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