Eddie The Eagle – In a new biopic that reassesses the legacy of Britain’s most famous ski jumper, Michael Edwards talks about the slippery slope to the Olympics, the snobs of the ski world and how he went bankrupt on £65,000 a day.
“I didn’t want to set the world on fire” … Eddie the Eagle in 1986. Photo: Steve Wood/Rex Features
Eddie The Eagle
Michael Edwards, aka Eddie Edwards, aka Eddie the Eagle, admits that the movie about his life brought him to tears before the opening credits were over. He says he couldn’t get a more accurate portrayal of the heart and soul of Britain’s first Olympic ski jumper – even if in fact it was only 5% accurate.
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It’s been 28 years since Edwards raced in Calgary, Canada. He finished last in both the 70m and 90m jumps, scoring about half of the second-last man’s points. With and for Edwards it was impossible not to laugh. He was so warm and caring that it touched our hearts. Still, with his borrowed skis, lace-up helmet, and super-large goggles, he looked like he’d stepped out of the gaming series – imagine Jim Royle losing a few pounds to the Winter Olympics and Eddie Eagle. .
There was always something heroic about Edwards. He was self-taught, the jumps were scary, he had been jumping for less than two years while his rivals had been doing it since they were little, and he was a working-class kid competing in the world of privileged luxury. The organization hated him; the rest of us loved it.
We meet at Claridge’s in London, where the film is promoting. The irony isn’t lost on him – when he’s not recapping Eddie the Eagle’s life story, he works for Michael Edwards as a builder and plasterer. There is another irony in his story – although few Britons remember the names of the first-class jumpers he competed in, he remains a household name. “When I fell into bad rep at the Calgary Olympics, I never thought my life would be made into a movie,” she says.
Edwards is unrecognizable today. At 52, she looks tough and flexible. The thick hair mat and tache are gone, the specs are gone, even the ski slope chin is gone. But there’s still something indescribable about Eddie – the curiosity, the white socks, or the always-ready giggle.
How Accurate Is ‘eddie The Eagle?’
Eddie the Eagle is a feel-good movie about the classic British cliché, the smart loser. From the very first scene, we see an unfortunate, desperate Edwards, determined to achieve a sporting success for himself, but doomed to tripping over his shoelaces at every finish line. In the movie, young Eddie uses thrusters and his plasterer father constantly discourages him from playing sports.
The reality was a little different. Young Eddie was an avid athlete – football, cricket, rugby, volleyball, he did it all. He even tried out as a goalkeeper for the local Cheltenham team. “There’s a certain degree of poetry in the movie,” he says with a smile. “If they had portrayed me as a great athlete, it wouldn’t have fit the story. I was actually a pretty good athlete, but it’s still true that I’ve had these crashes and they wanted to focus on the crashes.
As a child he was fearless, often jumping off scaffolding at construction sites. Later, at the age of 12, he suffered a terrible cartilage injury while playing football, was in a cast from ankle to thigh, and was in and out of the hospital for two years.
This was the end of Edwards’ football dreams. But he did not quit the sport. He watched the athletes at the Olympics and told himself he could still be himself one day walking up high in a Great Britain tracksuit. If only he could find a sport that would be truly great.
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He started skiing on Gloucester’s slopes as a teenager and fell in love with the sport. Before long he was on the ski slopes every day.
Did his father really dissuade him? In the movie, Edwards Sr. sees his son as a rogue loser and wants him to settle into a sane life as a plasterer. Ah, no, he says, it’s just a more poetic license. “My father was the opposite of what was portrayed in the movie. He was as supportive as my mother, but it was better for the movie if my father was against me.
Her family attended the gala and she says they couldn’t be more proud. – We had a special screening in January and I was worried. I warned my father and said that he might not like the way it is portrayed in the movie. But when we got out, he came and hugged me and said, “That was great!” said.
Another disturbing fact is that he was a really great downhill speed skier and was the ninth fastest amateur in the world, so this was left out of the movie. Did he ever tell the producers that you brought me here? “I understand why they did it this way,” she says perfectly. “In the movie, I thought the skiers on that slope weren’t very good, whereas I am much better. But it didn’t matter to me because I know I’m a good skier and people who know me know that.
Eddie The Eagle
Eddie Edwards’ true story is in many ways darker and more dramatic than portrayed in the biography; More Eddie the Revenant than Carry On Jumping. Penniless, hungry and homeless, he wandered around Europe desperate to ski as much as he could. He slept in his caravan in freezing temperatures of -25 degrees, scraped food from the garbage and was admitted to a mental hospital in Finland because he couldn’t afford it.
Rather than being the buffoon as portrayed (and to be fair, he portrayed himself), Edwards was a man of incredible tenacity and initiative. He was sent home on the first day when he was called up to the England ski team. “One selector said I shouldn’t be there because I abused the friendship and privileges of Gloucester Ski Club. He didn’t like me; he just didn’t like me at all.”
How can a person not love Eagle? Laughs. “Well, I used to ski a lot there and people would come up to me and say, I have a problem here, should I go back here or there. I looked at them and said, if you do that, you’ll get over the problem. Let them send them to ski school and then earn money by teaching.
Did he hate your generosity? I said, “Yeah. And if someone asks me, I’ll tell them, I won’t say I can’t talk to you, you should talk to the ski school.” But his injury kicked me out of the England team. I was absolutely shocked.”
Eddie The Eagle Set To Fly Into Solihull
Edwards didn’t want to be shot. He decided to skip the England team and win a call-up to the Great Britain team. What happened. He was in his 20s, traveling Europe by caravan, giving his all and still dreaming of Olympic fitness. In the end, the money made it. He couldn’t afford to continue skiing in the Alps. He was upset again and determined not to be shot again.
He may not make the British team as a sprinter, but he could potentially be a jumper. After all, there was no competition… England had never been an Olympic ski jumper and only had to jump 70 meters to qualify for the Winter Olympics (88, gold medalist Matti Nykanen jumped 118.5 meters in the 90 meter final). There was only one problem: He had never jumped before. It actually had two problems: It was also a supremely dangerous sport.
But Edwards should not have been deterred. He entered the Calgary Olympics by jumping just under 70 metres, shocking many of the snobs leading the British Olympic Association in the process. They saw Edwards as confused, an exhibitionist, a buffoon, a loser.
Other countries have looked at it more kindly as a phenomenon: How could a person leave a country that didn’t jump? Its background captivated the rest of the world. When he flew to Calgary, he discovered he had a new nickname; A giant poster adorning the airport wall greeted Eddie the Eagle. “‘Oh, who is that,’ I said, and ‘It’s you!’ they said.
Eddie The Eagle (2015)
Things got even worse for BOA. The world press had no time for any British athlete except Eddie. Always a good talker, Edwards fascinated them. A press conference lasted four hours. drambuie,
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