Michael Edwards

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Eddie the Eagle Ski jumping
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Full name Michael Edwards
nation United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
birthday 5th December 1963
place of birth Cheltenham ,  UK
size 165 cm
Weight 82 kg
job Bricklayer
Career
Pers. Best 73.5 m
status resigned
End of career 2004
Ski jumping world cup / A class jumping
 Debut in the World Cup December 30, 1986
 Four Hills Tournament 109th ( 1988/89 )
 

Michael Edwards , better known as Eddie the Eagle (born December 5, 1963 in Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , England ) is a former British ski jumper . He is the first jumper to compete for Great Britain at the Winter Olympics .

Life

Edwards says he has wanted to take part in the Olympic Games since childhood :

“When I was eight or nine years old, I consciously saw the Olympic Games on television for the first time and thought: Wow! It must be great to be part of something like this for your country. I wanted that, too. No matter how."

At first he tried unsuccessfully in judo , volleyball and equestrian sports . The trigger for switching to ski jumping was a television broadcast of the Four Hills Tournament 1985/86 . At the time, ski jumping was an Olympic discipline that was not practiced by any British athlete. Therefore, Edwards began in the late 1980s, without financial support from the British Ski and Snowboard Federation , to participate in international ski jumping competitions. According to his own statement, he learned to ski on the hills of the south-west English city ​​of Gloucester .

He took part in the Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf in 1987 and finished last among the 58 jumpers, but his 73.5 meters meant British record, which allowed him to participate in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary . At 82 kilograms he was about nine kilograms heavier than the heaviest of his Olympic opponents . On the normal hill as well as on the large hill , he finished last as 58th and 55th respectively.

Due to a pronounced farsightedness , which he later had surgically corrected , he had to rely on strong glasses for his jumps. The fact that these fogged up permanently in the weather conditions prevailing on the competition days meant that Edwards could often be seen cleaning his glasses before his jumps.

The nickname "Eddie the Eagle" (German: "Eddie the Eagle") quickly became popular among his fans and was subsequently adopted by the media.

Edwards describes the graduation ceremony of the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary as the greatest moment of his career. When the head of the organizing committee, Frank King, thanked the athletes in his speech with the words “You broke world records, set your personal best and some of you floated like one Adler ”, cheered the 100,000 spectators and shouted“ Eddie, Eddie! ”Edwards became a media star for a short time. He published a humorous book called On the Piste and recorded several singles . It is estimated that he made about £ 400,000 from his performances in 1988.

In 1989 Edwards fell in Innsbruck am Bergisel and broke his collarbone . Although he said he wanted to take part in the Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti , this was his last competition. The organizers prevented further participation in ski jumping competitions. The IOC changed the rules in 1990 and Edwards failed to qualify for the subsequent Olympic Games.

In 1992, Edwards filed for personal bankruptcy , but he continued to make money doing advertising. Despite successfully completing his law degree after his sporting career , he returned to his old profession as a bricklayer . He also claims to earn his living with part-time jobs, TV appearances and as a motivational speaker .

2010 Edwards was ahead of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in Winnipeg , the torch of the Olympic flame . At the end of December 2013 he took part in a show competition in Oberstdorf as part of the Four Hills Tournament . Edwards has two daughters and has been divorced from his wife since 2016. He lives in Woodchester .

Edwards life story was filmed by Dexter Fletcher under the title Eddie the Eagle - Anything is Possible . The film was released in theaters in 2016. Edwards was played by Taron Egerton , with other roles starring Hugh Jackman , Iris Berben and Christopher Walken . Edwards himself stated that only "about five percent" of what is shown in the film corresponds to historical reality. The portrayal of Taron Egerton is "incredibly similar" to him.

World Cup placements

date venue Competition type placement
December 30, 1986 Germany BRBR Germany Oberstdorf Single, large hill K115 110th place
date venue Competition type placement
December 30, 1987 Germany BRBR Germany Oberstdorf Single, large hill K115 112th place
January 1, 1988 Germany BRBR Germany Garmisch-Partenkirchen Single, large hill K109 110th place
January 3, 1988 AustriaAustria innsbruck Single, large hill K109 120th place
January 6, 1988 AustriaAustria Bischofshofen Single, large hill K115 120th place
date venue Competition type placement
December 30, 1988 Germany BRBR Germany Oberstdorf Single, large hill K115 95th place
January 1, 1989 Germany BRBR Germany Garmisch-Partenkirchen Single, large hill K109 94th place

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Eddie The Eagle Edwards: "I was different from the others". In: fr-online.de . July 23, 2012, accessed December 20, 2014 .
  2. ^ Official report of the 15th Olympic Winter Games
  3. ↑ Article on the Olympic Games in the Rome News-Tribune , February 29, 1988 (English).
  4. ^ On the piste , foreword by Eddie The Eagle Edwards, London, Chameleon, 1999, ISBN 0-233-99497-1
  5. ↑ No joke: "Eddie the Eagle" jumps in Oberstdorf Skispringen.com, December 18, 2012, accessed on December 18, 2013
  6. ↑ Whatever Happened to Eddie the Eagle, Britain's Most Lovable Ski Jumper? , accessed on April 19, 2016 (English)
  7. ↑ Mirror: Eddie the Eagle living in a shed and surviving on egg sandwiches after being 'wiped out' by divorce , accessed on January 20, 2019 (English)
  8. ↑ IMdB: Eddie the Eagle
  9. ^ Actor 'uncanny' as Eddie the Eagle . In: BBC News . December 16, 2015 ( bbc.com [accessed February 4, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Edwards, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eddie the Eagle
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British ski jumper
DATE OF BIRTH 5th December 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , England , UK