British ski jumping sensation ‘Eddie the Eagle’ soared to fame at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988. Eddie may not have won the ski jumping competition, in fact, he placed last, but he did win the hearts of the public. His story of perseverance and passion has since been immortalised in film and will go down in Olympic history. 36 years on, we chat to Britain’s first Olympic ski jumper about his odd-defying ski jumping career and where it has led him in life.
How did you first get into skiing and what did you enjoy about the sport?
I first got into skiing on a school ski trip when I was 13 years old. We went to Andalo in the Italian Dolomites and I loved it. I was also very lucky that I had one of the biggest dry ski slopes in the country [Gloucester Ski & Snowboard Centre] just ten miles from my house. So we went there for a few hours of lessons and then went on the ski trip. When I came back, I asked my dad if he would take me over to the dry ski slope and I started skiing there regularly.
It started off once a week, then twice a week, and then after about a month or two, it was every night after school and all weekend. It was ski, ski, ski! So, it just took over my life. I always loved sports, but it wasn’t until I started skiing that I thought, ‘This is the sport for me.’ I liked that it was an individual sport, so I could push myself to go as far as I could and be as good as I wanted to be with the effort I put in.
I did all kinds of skiing. I did ski acrobatics and ski ballet back in the day – I don’t think they do that now! I did Alpine ski racing and slalom, then got into GS and Super G. I did trick jumps over my friends, then over cars, snowcats and buses! So, anything and everything really to do with skiing, really. I loved it!
So, you were quite old to get into elite skiing. Do you feel that you were at a disadvantage?
I was at a disadvantage straight away because I didn’t start until I was 13 when a lot of the top skiers in the UK started much earlier at four or five years old. But because I was so in love with the sport and it was such a passion of mine, it didn’t put me off. I just tried to go as far as I could with what I had. My dad was a plasterer, my mum worked in an office, we didn’t have much money and there were skiers and there still are lots of skiers that have a huge advantage if they come from a well-off family. But it didn’t put me off.
What inspired you to pursue ski jumping, especially as it wasn’t a popular sport in Britain?
I got into ski jumping really by accident. I was racing internationally over in America in Lake Placid in Upstate New York and it was costing me something like 200-300 dollars a day and I was fast running out of money. So I popped along to the ski jumps and had a look.
I’d never seen a proper ski jump before and I went and knocked on the office and asked if I could have a go. They said there was a lost property shed at the bottom of the ski jump and told me to go and find a pair of boots and a helmet that fit and have a go and that was it. I just potted around the 10 metre and the 15 metre and went from there. It cost me five dollars a day to go ski jumping and I could afford five dollars a day, but not 200 dollars a day to go ski racing. So it was a bit of a no-brainer really!
How did you set out to qualify for the Olympics in ‘88?
When I started ski jumping and I realised that we’d never had a ski jumper before, I thought I’d carry on and see what I could do. I asked the British Ski Federation what I would need to do to qualify for the Olympics and originally they said I needed to jump 60 metres in a World Cup competition, which was going to be quite difficult. But I managed to do it, and then they said, ‘We’re moving the goalpost and making it 65 metres’. I did that and then they moved it to 70 metres. So, even up until about two months before Calgary I still didn’t know whether I was going because I wasn’t sure if they were going to move the goalpost again and make it impossible for me to go.
In a way, it was quite good because it meant that I had to jump better – but I was always wanting to jump better. I was constantly trying to push myself to jump further and further. In the film, they move the goalpost once, but in reality, they moved the goalpost post three or four times and then, eventually, I managed to qualify!
What did your training plan look like for the Olympics?
I only had a very loose training plan because of my circumstances. I had no money, no trainer and no facilities. I just did the best I could with what I had, which wasn’t very much. When I was at home, I would always do my physical training; running, lots of hops, jumps, hurdles and ski jump positions. Then when I had some money and had the kit, I would get in my mum’s car, drive into Europe and go to the nearest ski jump!
When you were in Europe, were there any resorts in particular that you visited frequently?
When I was in Lake Placid, my US Visa ran out so I had to come back. But before I left, the people in Lake Placid gave me the address of a ski jump centre in Switzerland in a tiny village called Kandersteg. So I drove to Switzerland, I found Kandersteg and went to the ski jumps. I couldn’t afford to do ski jumping every day there, but the manager said, ‘If you help out with a bit of cleaning and sweeping I’ll let you jump for free’, so that’s what I did.
I couldn’t afford the hotels but there was an International Scout Centre at the end of the village that let me stay there for £1 a night. I slept in my car, in a shed, in the dining room or on the floor somewhere and I just carried on doing the best I could. It was in Kandersteg that I got onto the 90 metre!
Could you reflect on your Olympic experience?
The Calgary Olympics were amazing. First of all, it was a dream for me to get there and I had finally made it. I went to Steamboat Springs to train with the American team and then on to Calgary. I had a few problems initially because my skis broke on the flight to Calgary. I think it was the German team that gave me a spare pair of skis so that I was able to jump. But I missed two of my training jumps. I went into the competition on the small hill having only had one jump, so I didn’t have the best of starts!
But then I got christened ‘Eddie the Eagle’, and poof, it exploded, and that was very strange. I couldn’t go anywhere because everybody kept bombarding me and asking me for autographs!
How exactly did you become ‘Eddie the Eagle’?
I did an interview with the BBC two weeks before I went off to Calgary and in the interview I said, ‘I’m Eddie Edwards and I’m about to be Britain’s first ever Olympic ski jumper and to all you people who I asked for sponsorship and you didn’t give it to me, I got there without your help.’ They showed it on Canadian television and a group of supporters from a company in Calgary saw it and christened me ‘Eddie the Eagle’.
The first time I realised was when I flew into Calgary and there were all these journalists and TV cameras pointing at me as we were walking through the airport. There was a great big banner on the wall that said, ‘Welcome to Calgary Eddie the Eagle’, and that was it!
I guess you could never have expected that sort of media attention. How did it affect you?
It was totally unexpected, but, in a way, I’m glad it happened. I was hoping when I went to Calgary, that if I could get a little bit of attention from the UK press because I was Britain’s first ever ski jumper I could turn that attention into sponsorship and make it easier to go for the next Olympics. That’s what I wanted to do.
But, unfortunately, a lot of the press attention, especially in the UK, was ‘the failure of the Olympics’, ‘the super flop’, and, of course, companies don’t want to sponsor that kind of image. So, it was a double-edged sword. It was fun getting all that attention and I was opening shopping centres and golf courses, but some of the press was quite negative, so trying to find sponsorship to carry on jumping was very difficult.
But it wasn’t only the sponsorships that affected my career. Some of the ski jumping federations complained to FIS. They were saying, ‘It’s not right that a guy who comes 58th should get more attention than the guy who won the event.’ So FIS then brought out a new rule, which in America was called the ‘Eddie the Eagle Rule’. It means that for an athlete to go to the Olympic Games, they must be ranked in the top 50 in the world in their sport or be placed in the top 50% (now 30%) of an international competition. So, indirectly, they kind of banned me from the sport.
Was the FIS ruling the reason you decided to retire from ski jumping?
Not initially, because after a few years, I did get a really good sponsor. I went back to America to Lake Placid where I first started ski jumping. I started to jump really well and I qualified for Nagano in 1998. I got in the top 50% of an international competition, but the British Ski Federation still turned around and said, ‘We’re not sending you.’ I thought that if I couldn’t compete for my country at the highest level, even though I was the best we had, then there was no point. So, in the beginning of 1998 when they refused to send me to Nagano, I retired and went back to school and did my law degree.
Is there anything you’d change about your ski jumping career or do differently if you could go back?
No, I don’t think so because, I didn’t know at the time, but it’s led to a full-time career ever since. Since Calgary, 36 years ago, I’ve travelled all over the world. I’ve been doing lots of TV shows, radio interviews and talks, and I’m still doing it now, so it would be hard for me to say, ‘I wish things had changed’, because I’ve done very well.
In fact, it was better to come last and become ‘Eddie the Eagle’ than it would have been if I’d placed maybe 50th or somewhere in the middle of the field. I would probably have been forgotten, and that would have been it. In a way, I’m glad it happened and that the Calgarians took me to their heart and christened me ‘Eddie the Eagle’, as I’ve had a wonderful career.
Having a film made about you must’ve been incredible, but also daunting. Do you feel like it was true to your lived experience? Is there anything that you’d change about the film?
No, I think they did a really good job. When I went to Calgary, having a movie made about my life was not on my radar at all. Then I was approached 25 years ago to make a film about my life and I signed the deal. But it kept falling through and after 15 years I thought the film would never be made.
It was only because I won a TV show called Splash in 2013 that the film came to life. I think Dexter Fletcher saw me perform and he heard that I signed these movie rights some 15 years beforehand, so they bought the rights and made the film. I’m glad it took as long as it did because they had time to reflect.
I was very worried at the time about how they were going to film it because I hadn’t seen the script or anything and I thought they were going to turn me into a Mr. Magoo character, then add a bit of slapstick comedy, and that would be it. But they actually did it really well. I’ve seen the film about 150 times and it still makes me cry when I watch it! It really captures the heart, spirit and essence of my story.
Are skiing and snow sports still an important part of your life?
They are an important part of my life, but they’re not the major part of my life now. I still do lots of talks almost every day, so I’m always talking about my life as a skier and as a ski jumper. I still try and go skiing as much as I can, usually between one and five weeks in the season. I still ski jump occasionally and I’ve got my ski jumping skis in the garage all waxed and ready to go in case I get an invite to go off and ski jump. So it’s still a part of my life.
Where is your favourite place to go skiing?
I love it everywhere. If I’ve got my skis on then I’m happy. I still love skiing at Gloucester. I ski at Tamworth, Milton Keynes and Hemel Hempstead at the indoor ski slopes. I used to go to my Mayrhofen almost every year for about 10 years for the Snowbombing Festival, so I do like that area. But I’m just happy to ski anywhere, whether it’s in America, Canada, Europe or Japan, it doesn’t matter to me as long as I’ve got skis on my feet!
Do you think that being an athlete has shaped you as a person?
I think so, yes. It hasn’t been easy, although a lot of people think I’ve had a nice easy life. It’s been fantastic over the last 30 years, but it took me 20 years to get there. So all the hardships I had between the ages of 3 and 23 shaped my life into what it is now. I can still sleep in a car and sleep in a cow shed if I have to, it doesn’t bother me, and that’s a nice way to be!
Would you encourage others to give underrepresented sports such as ski jumping a go?
Definitely. When I’m doing my talks, I always encourage everybody, not just in sport, but in life, that if you’ve got a goal, a dream, an ambition, hold on to that, no matter how many people tell you it can’t be done. I was always told ‘Give it up. It’s never going to work. You’ll never do it.’ But I like proving people wrong and I did! You’ve got to be really open and have that passion and believe in yourself. No matter how hard it gets, never lose sight of where you want to be. You might take a few steps back or a few steps to the left or right. It’s not always a nice straight, easy line and you will have knocks but you’ve got to get back up and carry on and never give up.
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