Eddie the Eagle, ordinary-guy Olympian, brought back to life in biopic
In a pre-YouTube age, a no-hope amateur ski jumper’s exploits at the 1988 Winter Olympics spawned a viral video and forever changed sports broadcasting. Taron Egerton plays the endearing English folk hero in an ‘airborne Cool Runnings’
At the 1988 Winter Olympics, a British construction worker of modest talent named Michael Edwards decided to hurtle himself hundreds of feet down and off a ramp at 100km/h.
The setting was the 90-metre ski-jump competition, and a medal was about as close as the moon. But Edwards’ spirited performance at those Calgary Games earned him a raft of media coverage and the sobriquet Eddie the Eagle, a living viral video long before the age of YouTube.
Neither he nor the sports-broadcasting world would ever be the same.
Edwards’ story is mainly remembered by sports fans older than 35. At a time when Europeans both stoned-faced (Matti “The Flying Finn” Nykanen) and tabloid-ready (Alberto “The Bomba” Tomba) were dominating the Winter Games, the bespectacled Edwards captured the world’s attention with ... what’s the opposite of dominance?
I was never someone who wanted to hold on to the celebrity image. My goal was just to prove people wrong. That’s always been what’s motivated me. And I did that.