This article will focus on British ski jumper Eddie Edwards. What is remarkable about this man's life? How did he become successful?
Origin and childhood
Michael Thomas Edwards was born in the small resort town of Cheltenham, which is located in the English county of Gloucestershire, December 5, 1963. Jeanette's mother and Terry's father were simple hardworking people. Michael is the middle of three children in the family. His brother Duncan was born a year and a half earlier, and his sister Liz was born three years later.
Classmates at school began to call Michael Eddy, which was a nickname derived from the surname. Edwards' fearlessness and stubbornness began to show as a child, which often had disastrous consequences. At the age of 10, while playing football, Michael injured his knee so much that the injury had to heal for the next three years. At the age of 13, a fully cured teenager, he learned to ski. Success in skiing was great, seventeen-year-old Michael was accepted into the British national team.
Becoming an elite sport
Skier Michael Edwards at 20 came close to making it to the 1984 Winter Olympics to represent Great Britain in the discipline"downhill", but a little lacking performance.
The young athlete needed a rather large amount of money, because he had to not only eat well, but also buy equipment, go to training camps and competitions. Michael had to work as a plasterer, because all the paternal ancestors known to him earned their bread and butter by this profession. Parents supported their son in all endeavors, including financially, but their opportunities were very limited.
In 1986, Eddie Edwards moved to the village of Lake Placid, USA. Such a step was taken due to the fact that this small village has everything necessary for practicing any kind of winter sports, because it has already twice hosted the Olympic Games. Edwards begins active preparations for the 1988 Olympics, which should take place in Calgary, Canada. In Lake Placid, training takes place on the most difficult tracks, to which an excellent reach is organized, but the young man has almost run out of money.
Transition to ski jumping
Edwards decided that he needed to find a less expensive sport for himself in terms of finances. One day, on the way to a regular workout, a man saw a springboard and thought that it would be easy and cheap to win victories in jumping from this structure. The fact is that Great Britain, since 1924, has never sent its ski jumpers to the Olympics. Athletes in this form were not trained in the country; Edwards could not find competitors in his state. Younga man thought that he could adequately represent the British Kingdom at the Olympic Games in the discipline of ski jumping, just need to prepare well.
Eddie Edwards has never skied, but his innate fearlessness allowed him to climb the ten-meter springboard. Landings were rarely successful for Eddie, but as soon as something began to come out, the young man moved to the fifteen-meter mark. A few hours later, Edwards decided to try himself on the forty-meter springboard. A bad landing after jumping from such a height can permanently kill the desire to train, but Eddie is not like that. He was able to suppress his fears and pain and made several attempts, but nothing came of it. Then Edwards decided that he needed a coach. Eddie is trained by Chuck Bernhorn, an amateur athlete of a low level, but with almost 30 years of jumping experience.
Bernhorn gives Edwards his gear, he has to wear six pairs of socks to fit his boots. Chuck understands that his ward does not have any makings of a winner, because even his physical data fail. Eddie is too heavy for ski jumping, his weight of about 82 kg was more than 10 kg more than the weight of the average jumper. The athlete has to be completely self-financed, since no one undertakes to support him, and the state does not allocate money for this sports discipline at all. Another big problem for the young man is his poor eyesight, which forced him to wear glasses with very thick lenses. Ski goggles had to be worn over his regular ones,which fogged up and did not give a good orientation. But Bernhorn saw in his student a great desire not only for victory as such, but also for work, for overcoming himself and circumstances. Be that as it may, the training continued and after 5 months Eddie was already jumping from the seventy-meter springboard.
Road to the 1988 Olympics
In 1986 Eddie set a UK record in Switzerland with a jump of 68m. broke both personal and national records. True, at this championship he took the very last, 58th, position in the final protocol. This performance qualified him as the only British applicant for the 1988 Winter Olympics in ski jumping.
Now Edwards knew for sure that he would compete at the Olympics, but he was also aware of his lagging behind his competitors. He did not give up training, continuing to earn his dream by working as a plasterer, lawn care worker, moonlighting as a nanny or a catering worker. Teams from many countries presented Eddie with equipment for studies and performances: someone had a helmet, someone had gloves, someone had skis. Some equipment had to be rented.
1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary
By the start of the Olympics, Eddie Edwards was already a big celebrity. Having participated in several fairly large competitions, the young man managed to turnattract the attention of athletes, journalists and the public. Ordinary people, as a rule, treated the daredevil with understanding and approval, who clearly has no chance, but is ready to fight to the end. Journalists, on the other hand, found their interest in the situation with Eddie, seeing that the public liked the athlete. There were no outright vicious attacks from the media, but most of this fraternity sought to cover Eddie's involvement as witty as possible, sometimes very caustic. But some simply laughed at the athlete, classifying them as notorious losers who are not averse to making themselves look like clowns.
Already at Calgary Edwards Airport, bad luck began to haunt. The athlete's luggage opened on the conveyor belt, personal belongings had to be hastily collected from the conveyor. At the entrance to the city Eddie was waiting for fans who held a sign: "Welcome to Calgary, Eddie the Eagle!". This hospitable phrase was filmed by Canadian television, many people immediately remembered and fell in love with this nickname. So the athlete around the world began to be called Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards. The biography of this athlete began to interest many of his fans. The flying skier noticed the groups of his fans, but did not notice the glass door on his way to the fans. The automatic door did not work, the athlete ran into it all the way, breaking his nose and glasses.
Olympic participant Eddie Edwards' press conference attracted a lot of media representatives, although it could not have taken place at all due to the fact that the main person got lost at first, and then the athlete remembered that he forgot to take his accreditation card with him.
In the 70m springboard competition at the Olympics, Eddie Edwards finished last, failing to clear the 55m distance. But this was not so important, because no one expected high results from him. But the audience really fell in love with the athlete and was glad that there were no injuries.
The 90m springboard jump set Edwards up to date with a new, hitherto unbeaten, UK record and his own 57.5m. True, the place among the participants again turned out to be the last one.
According to the principle of Olympism, it is not the victory that matters, but the participation. But after all, in this simple participation there were many victories that were won over their fears, material troubles, real physical pain. In addition, for a specific country, his homeland - Great Britain, Eddie Edwards was a real winner.
Life after the Olympics
After a memorable performance at the Olympics (ski jumping), Eddie Edwards began to be invited as a star guest on various TV shows. He visited the evening show Johnny Carson in 1988, and then his face quite often flashed in the programs of sports, humorous, family-oriented. In the same year, the athlete published an autobiographical book "On the Ski Track", which he dreamed of filming. It turned out that the glory of Edwards was not momentary and did not go along with the Olympic Games. Pretty good money was paid for participation in television programs, in addition, several advertising contracts followed. Eddie even showed himself as a musician, recording several songs in Finnish, which became quite popular. Just keep in mind that Edwards practically does not speak Finnish, knowing only a few dozen words and phrases.
There was a time when the biography of Eddie Edwards was not going well. He somewhat lost his earned savings due to their incorrect distribution, again he had to change many professions. He worked as a ski instructor, sports agent, and soon realized that he was very good at conducting motivational seminars. Edwards was able to become a fairly highly qualified lawyer.
Attempts to enter the Olympics for the second time and the Eddie Eagle Rule
The participation of a rookie athlete in fact at the Olympics stirred up the entire near-sports community. Most participants in the Olympic Games, in order to get to them, begin to engage in their discipline at 6-7 years old. Some athletes said that high-level competitions should not be made a joke. Therefore, the IOC introduced new rules for the admission of athletes to these types of games, which became known as the "Eddie Eagle Rule". According to the introduced requirements, each of the athletes applying for participation in the Olympics must show themselves well at international competitions held before. The athlete must be either in the top 50 athletes in these competitions, or in the top 30% of the final results (depending on the number of participants). The approval of this rule completely closed accessto the Olympics of athletes who, being the best in their homeland, are far behind their foreign rivals.
To Eddie Edwards himself, this rule, which tacitly bears his name, greatly interfered with the continuation of his sports career. But the man would like to take part in the Olympics further. In 2010, Eddie still became a participant in the Olympic Games, but in a new capacity as a torchbearer, who ran with fire in Vancouver.
Film "Eddie the Eagle"
In early 2016, the film "Eddie the Eagle" was presented to the public. Edwards oversaw the progress of his film biography and was actively involved in promoting the picture upon its release. But the film itself turned out to be semi-biographical, as the scriptwriters put a lot of fiction into it in advance. The role of Eddie was played by the young actor Taron Egerton, who is beginning to gain popularity. And the role of the coach of the athlete, whose name is Bronson Peary, was played by the famous artist Hugh Jackman. Bronson Peary is a collective image, because in addition to the athlete Chuck Bernhorn, who began to train and John Wiscombe, who joined him a little later, Eddie had to listen and look closely at many athletes and coaches. In general, the film was rated positively by critics and viewers.
The released movie again raised the hype around Eddie Edwards, causing a new surge of interest in the person of this unusual athlete. Moreover, the army of Edwards fans was replenished with young people who, due to their age, did not catch or do not remember Eddie's performances atOlympics.
Private life
In Las Vegas in 2003, Eddie Edwards married Samantha Morton. They met at work, because the woman was the co-host of the athlete on the radio show. The couple had two daughters, one of whom was born in 2004, and the other in 2007. In 2014, the couple decided to divorce, but their divorce proceedings with the division of material we alth lasted two years and was completed only by 2016. Eddie's girls stayed with their mother, but the athlete tries to maintain a good relationship with them.
In addition, Edwards has a close and kind relationship with his sister, Elizabeth, who works as a teacher. In 2007, Eddie donated bone marrow to Liz, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The treatment of a loved one was successful, the cancer receded.
