Whatever Happened To Eddie The Eagle?
At the 1988 Calgary Olympics, per Olympics, Michael Edwards placed last in both of his events: the 70 meter and 90 meter ski jumps. Nonetheless, it had been exactly 60 years since a British ski jumper last qualified for the Olympics, and if there's one thing the nation loves, it's an underdog. Edwards became an icon as Eddie the Eagle.
In the decades since, his story has been told in the 2015 movie "Eddie the Eagle" (trailer on YouTube) and through other media. The man himself may not have seen much of the limelight since the close of the 1980s, but he has kept himself busy by releasing a book ("Eddie the Eagle: My Story"), a music track, and even continuing his association with the Olympic Games, along with other ventures.
In 1991, according to an interview with The Ski Podcast, he released a song, in Finnish, which hit the number 2 spot in the country's charts. He explained that in Finland (where ski jumping is a huge deal), "a singer and songwriter wrote a song about me and one of the newspapers in Finland asked me to come over and sing the song with him." Tragedy struck when the musician died of a heart attack the same day they were due to meet, but Edwards performed the song at the country's request, singing words he had learned phonetically. And so the late Irwin Goodman's single "Mun Nimeni On Eetu" (per Discogs) saw the light of day.
Eddie the Eagle and his media adventures
His autobiography, "Eddie The Eagle: My Story," came out in 2016. Recalling his great adventure, he writes, "Everyone must have a time or a moment in life which they'd love to preserve forever or re-live again. Mine would be here at the Olympic Games." In between the song and the autobiography, he has earned a law degree. "It opens up so many more avenues to me. I'm interested in the legal profession or possibly with the police," he said, per an interview with the BBC in 2003. He also had a central role on British show "The Jump," which sees celebrities tackle winter sports. The series lasted from 2014-2017, per Yahoo Sport, though after three seasons, Edwards was removed as a commentator in what seemed to be a disagreement with the producers.
Edwards partook occasionally on "The Jump," but perhaps his finest moment since the Olympics was reliving his glory days at the very spot where he made his famous jumps. In 2017, per the CBC, he was back on the Calgary slopes with the Altius Nordic Ski Club, spreading the word of the sport that remains his passion. He made six jumps on the perilous slopes and reportedly told the press, "there was such a crowd, and they were all shouting 'Eddie, Eddie,' and it took me right back to Calgary 29 years ago." Once and always an enigmatic ski star.