Winter Olympics icon Eddie the Eagle opens up on flying, failure and being Britain’s most unlikely Olympian

Every Olympic Games gives us champions, gold medalists, world records, sporting perfection

But every now and then, the Games gives us something else entirely

Someone who doesn't win. Someone who doesn't even come close and yet somehow becomes unforgettable

Now, today's guest did exactly that. In 1988, at the Winter Olympics in Calgary

a British ski jumper took to the slopes with no funding, no coach

Thick glasses, borrowed equipment and absolutely no expectation of winning. He finished last, twice, and became one of the most famous Olympians of all time

Eddie the Eagle Edwards wasn't only Britain's first Olympic ski jumper, he became a symbol of what Olympics are supposed to be about

Courage over comfort, participation over perfection, dreams over medals. at a time when Britain had no ski jumping program, Eddie trained alone

He played his own way, he slept wherever he could, Eddie jumped anyway, and crowds loved him

Fellow athletes respected him, and officials, well, different story. They rewrote the rules, so much so that qualification standards were tightened afterwards

in what became the Eddie the Eagle rule. Now today, nearly four decades on, it raises the big question, would Eddie even be allowed to compete now

Have the Olympics become too elite, too polished, too perfect to allow stories like this to ever happen again

And what does success in sport really mean? Is it medals? Is it memories

I'm Paul Coit and on this episode of Sport on GB News Originals

I'm delighted to be joined by one of British sport's most iconic underdogs

and a true Great Britain, in my view, Eddie the Eagle Edwards

How are you, Eddie? I'm good, thank you very much. That was a lovely intro

I like that. Well, you are more than welcome, and I believe that. Do you think people..

Oh, thank you. Do you think people see you differently maybe now

than they did back when you were jumping there at Calgary? Has the mood changed a bit or not

I think it has, yeah. More people now look back, especially having seen the film, they look back and think, wow, it was a wonder he ever got there

That resilience, that tenacity, that determination, that never giving up spirit. Whereas when I came back from Calgary immediately, especially with the papers, they were saying, oh, it was a super flop

It was a failure. He shouldn't have been there. And people were influenced by that

So, yes, I think over the last sort of 38 years, attitudes have changed to what I represented at Calgary when I jumped for Great Britain

Eddie, give me a little bit more background on what happened before then, because you say about tenacity and this never say die attitude

I mean, you came from nowhere to become a British winter sports legend

There's no question about that. So in a nutshell, how did it actually happen

But I know it's a long old story, but give us some sort of idea of the route you took and what you had to go through to get there

Well, it was a school ski trip when I was 13 years old. I had a local dry ski slope and that became my home

I got into ski racing, doing slalom and giant slalom. Started racing internationally, then went to America

And I ran out of money when I was in Lake Plathard and I saw the ski jumps

And I thought, oh, I'll give it a go, see what happens. And I quite like jumping through the air with skis on anyway

and then I found out that Britain have never had a ski jumper before

and I thought, well, I'll keep going, see what happens and I managed to get up to the big jumps and qualify for Calgary

and then became Eddie the Eagle and boom. I love the way, like a pre-seed version, I mean, it's just amazing

that it's gone from like, well, I did a bit of skiing at school and before I knew it, then I was up jumping

What's the moment though? There must be a difference. You say you used to like jumping on skis

but when you then go up to that big hill, I mean, It must have really been a nerve-wracking moment because that's a bit different from just jumping off a hill or just sliding down a mountain to actually go up onto that jump

That's right. Because when I started ski jumping, I started on the 10-metre ski jump

And that was hard enough because that's still about 30, 40 feet. Then I moved very quickly up to the 15-metre

That scared me to death. And then after about an hour, I moved up to the 40-metre, which was even more scary

So from the moment I started ski jumping to the moment I retired, and that was out of about 20,000, 25,000 jumps, I was just as scared to do the last one as I would do the first one

You never get used to it. But, you know, I overcome that fear by using lots of different techniques

And, you know, I managed to qualify and jump at Calgary. I didn't fall over

I didn't break anything. I had broken a few things, but nothing at the Olympic Games

And although it scared me to death, I had an absolute ball

And it was the most exciting thing I've ever done. What drove you on then, Eddie

Is it because people said no to you? Is it because you had a lot of that, didn't you

Oh, yes. And I think the biggest thing was defiance, really. I wanted to be the best jumper that I could possibly be

And everybody kept telling me, oh, you're not going to be able to jump off a 30 metre

and then a 40 metre, then a 60 metre, then a 75 metre. and I loved proving people wrong

Ever since I was a little boy, I hated being told that I couldn't do something. And when they kept saying

you know, no, you'll never do that. You'll never jump further than 50 meters or 60 meters

And I was determined to prove them wrong. And it was sheer determination

And as long as I was jumping better today than I was yesterday, I wanted to keep going

I wanted to see how far I could push myself and be the best jumper that I could be

So it was just pure, you know, stubbornness, really. What were the other athletes, like the other jumpers

compared to maybe other members of the British team that were there doing other sports

At Calgary, all the jumpers were lovely because they said all this attention that was being thrust upon me

Of course, I got christened Eddie the Eagle at Calgary. Tell us that story

So how was it you got christened Eddie the Eagle? Because this is a great story, isn't it? Well I did an interview with the BBC two weeks before Calgary and I said I Eddie Edwards and I about to be Britain first ever Olympic ski jumper And I said you know to all you people out there I asked for sponsorship and you didn give it to me

I said, I got there without your help. And they sent this interview over to Canada and they showed it on Canadian television

And then a group of supporters from an oil company in Calgary saw it on Canadian television

And Chris and me, Eddie the Eagle. And then I was going through the airport at Calgary for the Olympics

and there was a great big banner on the wall at the airport saying, welcome to Calgary, Eddie the Eagle

And I said, oh, who's there? And they said, it's you. And that was it. I got christened Eddie the Eagle and I'm so pleased that I got christened

It had nothing whatsoever to do with me. And I think I'll be called Eddie the Eagle for the rest of my life

It's amazing how you got there because it's so deserved. Because I think at the time people were just thinking

this guy's turned up and he's just going to jump off this ski jump. And it's all a bit of a laugh

But like you say, you went from being a really great skier and then you trained and you worked hard and you did all of this stuff on your own

I mean, the story about how you actually found out you were in the British team, where was it

Were you in Finland at the time? I was, yes. I was in Finland in a place called Corpio and I was training with the Finnish team there

And the cheapest place for me to stay was in a psychiatric hospital

And they were renovating one of the wings of the hospital. Yeah. And I was literally sleeping in a padded cell and I got the letter. I rang my mom and she opened the letter and she said, oh, my God, you're going to Calgary. And then that was it. I got out of the hospital and I rushed to London to pick up my uniform and I went to Calgary. So, yeah, and I slept in cars and in cow sheds. I scraped food out of bins. I did whatever I could so that I could stay out wherever I was and carry on my ski jumping. You know, and that was the most important thing for me to do

See, that's the amazing thing is the dedication. There's so many people. I know how dedicated sports people have got to be to get to the top, but there's always help along the way. And it almost seems like you've had to do it single-handedly. I mean, were there, of course, we look at the film and you've got Hugh Jackman as the coach. Was there a Hugh Jackman or were there different coaches

there were i had about 20 different coaches but hugh jackman is largely based on my very first

coach because i started ski jumping in lake placid my first coach was an american um and he he was a

great guy uh john viscomi and he's largely based on him and then they like the characteristics from

some of my other coaches and so he's like an amalgamation of probably half my coaches and

that was the easiest way really to tell the story and um hugh jackman played a great part and uh

Taryn Edgerton as well. I couldn't believe how much he looked and sounded and acted like me in

the film. And they did a wonderful, wonderful job. Who would have thought the same person that

would play Elton John and Eddie the Eagle? Who would have ever thought? I know. So was the moment that you found out when you speak to your mum on the phone, because I think

there's always a defining moment, not only in athletes' careers, but in anybody, you know

in your whole life, you think that was the turning point. What was it like? Was that one of the great moments when you actually found out that you were going because this was the dream

that's right it's been a dream of mine since i was about eight years old to go to an olympic games

and i didn't know that i was going to do it ski jumping and um when my mum said oh my god you are

going to the calgary winter olympic trip for half uh you know half a minute i i really wasn't taking

it in i thought my god are you are you sure are you can you read it again are you sure and uh and

She said, yes, you'll go into the Olympic Games. And that was it, the realisation of my dream

And then, of course, going to Calgary and watching the Olympic plane being lit

you know, sitting there in the stadium. And I thought, wow, this is it. And to put on my Olympic uniform for the very first time

it was, you know, everything I dreamed of. And, yeah, it brought tears to my eyes there

And it still brings tears to my eyes now. Did you feel part of the team, though

Did you feel embraced by the team? not really um because we were spread out a little bit there were a number of different

athletes villages and um it was a little bit more difficult and that's why in the film they

pretended to go off and get me drunk because i think there were some members of the team that were that didn't like what happened they said i'm better at my sport than eddie is at his

why is he getting all this attention and of course it was only because i got christened eddie the

eagle um and it just exploded and caught everybody's imagination so there was a little bit of animosity

with some of the members of the team. But I tried not to let that affect me

I just carried on doing what I needed to do. And that was train to, you know, do my ski jumping

I did want to hook myself at Calgary and I had to train very hard to make sure I didn't fall over and break anything

on such a sporting spectacle. Tell me about the day of the first jump then

So how was that? Because there must have been, at this point, there was a lot of attention around you, right

or was it only after those jumps? It was during the first jump

In fact, my first time on the ski jumps, my bindings had broken on the flight up to Calgary

and I had to borrow a pair of skis from the Austrian team

And I've only lost... I've got to stop. These are the bits. This is what attaches your boot to the skis, right

Yes, that's right. And I couldn't use my skis. And the Austrian team said

we've got a couple of spare pairs and they put them up for me

And, um, so it was very strange because they, they weren't like my normal bindings

And so they were, um, you know, it was something very new to me. And then I already missed two training jumps

So I got one training jump going into the competition and then, um, and then that was

it, the small hill was okay, but the attention was building for the big hill and, uh, it

was windy at Calgary. They kept canceling the training sessions because of the high winds

And then they, um, they thought, oh, maybe Eddie shouldn't jump. Cause it's too dangerous

but to do the jump on the big hill in front of 82,000 people in the stadium

it was just incredible. The noise from the crowd was amazing. And, you know, it's something that will stay with me forever

It was great. They were all shouting, Eddie, Eddie. And, yeah, it was just incredible

So when you're up there, is it because you say you could hear, but it's so high up

And if anybody's never been onto the top of a ski jump, I've been up there and I took the lift down again, by the way, Eddie

it just so high up and there just silence isn there and is that what happens when you actually start the jump All of a sudden everything becomes quiet

What do you hear? Is it just wind or you can hear the noise or all of a sudden you just hit the air and then it's just nothing

Well, I can hear the crowd when I'm sitting there on the bench

getting ready to go. Is that a good thing or does that make you feel even worse

Oh, it's incredible because that inspired me. I wanted to jump for them and I wanted to get a new British record and jump as far as I possibly could for the audience, for the crowd

And so that kind of spurred me on. And, you know, I sat on that bar. Then I started I got the wave from the American coach to say it's safe

Off you go. And I came down. But the moment you leave that bar within two seconds, you're doing 60 miles an hour

And then you can just feel the wind and hear the wind coming through your your helmet

and um so then it just becomes you know concentrate on the takeoff coming to the takeoff and diving

out over your skis and and and flying through the air so for about three seconds while I'm flying

through the air all I'm thinking about is my technique and trying to land on my feet and then

when I land and the whole crowd went nuts and uh and that's when I heard all the crowd again so

for those seconds it's kind of just the wind you know going through your helmet and you can hear it

your ears and it helps you to concentrate but hasn't there been a time where because you had

glasses on right so they steam up yeah oh they did all the time but they didn't at calgary because

i got up to the top of the ski jump quite early so it had i had time for my body heat to cool down

um but generally when i'm doing my training in some competitions when i was a bit late getting

up to the top of the jump and i was still hot the last thing i did when i leave the bar is bring my

goggles down over my glasses because the moment I did that, my glasses would steam up, but then I

would start coming down the jump and then the air would flow through my goggles and clear my glasses

But about three or four jumps in every 10, they didn't. So I was actually taking off and my glasses

were totally steamed up. I couldn't see where the landing hill is. And while I'm flying through the

air, I had to stick my finger up and try and clear some of the steam off my glasses

Just thawing it as you're flying along. But straight afterwards then, now the reaction

from the world was just crazy, wasn't it? I mean, you're a very level-headed man

And the time that I've known you, how anybody can actually keep it together

from what you've gone through and the whole world knew you. How do you deal with that

And tell us some of the things that happened straight afterwards. Well, during Calgary

I got invited to go down to do the Johnny Carson show with Burt Reynolds

And I didn't realise but the Johnny Carson show was like the biggest show in America at the time

And I went down there and then all of a sudden went into the green room. I met Burt Reynolds and we sat and chatted for about four hours before the show

And he was the loveliest guy. And it was just lovely getting all this attention from everybody

They were really lovely and saying, oh, we love what you did at Calgary. We, you know, we loved everything you represent at the Olympic Games and well done and all that thing

And I was getting all this love and support. And it was just lovely. And it's been like that for the last 38 years, really

And I've opened shopping centres, golf courses, fun rides, all kinds of hospitals, hotels

I've done lots of TV shows and radio shows all over the world. And I've met some amazing people

And, you know, if I could live the last 38 years all over again, I would do exactly the same

It's been absolutely incredible. But wasn't it the closing ceremony? That was really special, wasn't it, Calgary

Yes, because I went into the closing ceremony. It's a stadium. There was 80,000 people in the stadium

and the Olympic president stood up and said people had set new goals

and set new records, and son of you have flown like an eagle. And then all of a sudden, the whole stadium all shouted

eh, D, eh, D. And they went crazy. And I wasn't expecting that at all, but it was absolutely incredible

And it still makes the head on the back of my neck stand out on end

It was so special. It's fantastic. But the thing is, is that you're always going to have those people that are always sneering or he's this, he's that

But it was the authorities, wasn't it? It was like the skiing federation. Who were the ones that were the real stick in the muds and the ones that caused you problems

Yeah, the jumpers were loving it. It was just some of the federations, like the Norwegian Ski Federation

They said in Norway, we have 50,000 Eddie the Eagles. We don't send them to the Olympic Games

and then they complained to Feast because I was getting an awful lot of attention

more than the guys who were winning competitions and Feast then brought out a new rule

which effectively kicked me out of the sport they kicked me out of the World Cup the Olympics

the British Ski Federation kicked me out of the British team they said we don't like what's happening

you're making a mock of the sport and bringing the sport into disrepute and so they literally

my wings were clipped and I wasn't able to carry on ski jumping which is basically short-sighted of them really

Well, I was going to say, without making a pun, it's incredibly short-sighted because everybody was looking at ski jumping

Everybody was into ski jumping. You were probably getting people involved in the sport. So many more people watching it. And they're literally cutting off their nose to spite their face to do it because they're so hoity-toity about the whole situation

What about over here, though? Skiing here surely embraced you, right? No, they didn't, actually. The British Ski Federation, they didn't like what happened at Calgary

so they kicked me off the team and then that was it really

it was awful the British Olympic Association didn't like what happened at the Olympic Games

they felt I didn't deserve that attention and so yeah when FIAS said that they were going to

change the rules, the British Ski Federation and the British Olympic Association didn't do anything

to stop them because they thought okay yeah let's do it because they were just as embarrassed as

some of the other federations and it was awful And it was a shame because the British Ski Federation have never had an athlete with such a high profile at the time

And I could have helped promote skiing and ski jumping around the UK. And I would have been quite happy to do it. But they said, no, go away. We don't like it

So what's the Eddie the Eagle rule then? What exactly is that? The rule is that if you an athlete and you want to go to the Olympic Games you got to be ranked in the top 50 in the world at your sport or it used to be you got to be placed in the top 50 but I think they dropped it now to the top 30

of an international competition. So you've got to get in the top 30% in the results

And at the time, that was very, very difficult. Very difficult. And that was, so they didn't ban me directly

They banned me indirectly by bringing out that new rule because I couldn't reach the top 30

of an international competition. They tried a couple of things, didn't they? Didn't they make it a distance after Calgary and then you kept jumping and then they say, right, this is the distance you've got to get to and you do it. So then they make it further and then you do it again

that's right and they did that before calgary as well because in the film they moved the goalpost

once but in reality before calgary they moved the goalpost four times um but i still managed to reach

the qualification and and go to calgary but then after calgary i think they kind of literally

doubled the the distance and it made it almost impossible so that that was also another and also

because if you want to get in the top 30 percent of an international competition you would have to

jump, you know, at least 50 metres further. And, you know, I was a beginner at ski jumping. I'd

only been jumping for 20 months, 22 months, you know. Let's get this straight. So you've been

jumping for 20 months. You've got ski jumpers from around the world that have been jumping all

their life. So then they grew up on ski. So they spent their whole life jumping. Were they amazed

that you could actually do what you did at all in the short space of time? They were because

you know, I was standing at the top of a 90 metre and some of the Germans and the Austrians are

saying, well, after 15 months, 20 months, we were still on the 30 meter ski jump. It took us five

six, even 10 years to get up to the top of a 90 meter. And there I was at the top of the 90 meter

after only sort of 15 months. In fact, my first 90 meter I did was after, oh, it was after about

six months. So they said, oh my God, you shouldn't really be up here. But they were quite impressed

but very nervous for me as well. They said it's very dangerous. So be careful. the whole Olympic spirit and we this is what we we're talking about today is the whole point of it

it's it's supposed to be all embracing it's entertainment for everybody everybody feels

something from it it's there's more than just competition is there there's so much more to the

whole thing and you embodied the whole of that so has it sort of come full circle because aren't you

Even in now the Olympic Museum, which I think is really important and almost says, yes, Eddie Eagle, you are an Olympian and you deserve to be amongst everybody else

Yes, I was very surprised, actually, that the Olympic Museum, I didn't even know there was an Olympics museum

And they invited me over to Lausanne and I donated some of my uniform and some of my equipment

and they said, oh, no, no, you're part of Olympic history and you will always be part of Olympic history

And we loved what you did and you exemplified that Olympic ideal

and they were just as proud of me taking part as other people

So, yeah, even authorities have changed their attitude having looked back on what I did and things

And they realised that for me, just getting to those Olympic Games was my gold medal and I was going to enjoy every second of it

And I think people appreciated that. And I'll probably donate more of my uniform and actually all my Olympic uniform

probably to the Lausanne Olympic Museum in the future. What a place for it to be

And there's some steamed up glasses as well in there too. But finally, the British Federation, is there a picture of you now

There should be a huge picture at the top of the stairs of you. Did they finally come round and say, Eddie, we're sorry

I don't even know where the building, the Federation building is now

They've moved it all over the place. If there is a picture, it's probably in the downstairs loo

It's probably in the downstairs loo. So every time they go to the loo and do a pee, they'll see my face and they'll think, oh, my word, who's that

But also, you should have jumped on. It should have continued because you did get better and better and better, didn't you

I did, yeah. When I was training for the 98 Olympics at Calgary, I was doing, I think, 55 metres on the small hill and about 71 metres on the big hill

But when I was training for Nagano, I was averaging about 90 metres on the small hill and about 110, 115 metres on the big hill

So I actually got quite good at ski jumping, just nobody ever got to see it because even though I reached the qualification, they said, no, we're not sending you to Nagano

So I retired and went back to school and retired from competitive ski jumping

I've got to say, Eddie, and I've always said this, and even going back to 88 and seeing you do that, and I thought you were a hero

And I really hated the way that some people would then just, it just seemed cheap to make jibes at you

and I think since then, since people have seen the film and people now know the truth and everything you went through

and how good a skier you were, I think finally after all this time

you're getting the recognition you deserve because you are a true Olympic hero in my eyes

and it's always good to speak to you. And we really appreciate your time

You're going to enjoy the winter Olympics. I will. I might go to Milan next week to do a talk at a conference while I'm there

and yeah, I'll try and watch a little bit But yeah, it's really nice that people have, you know, still embraced me and loved everything I did and represented all those years ago

And they can still remember, you know, everything I did. So it's really, really nice. And I'm very grateful that I get that appreciation. It's lovely

And if I said to you, look, Eddie, some skis, we've got some nice bidings for you

What about getting back in the gang again and going up on the top of the 90 meter? Would you give it a go

Oh, absolutely. I would just you would rush up that jump put them on

and get jumping and I'd still want to jump the furthest I've ever

jumped before that's always in me and I'll always I'll always be like that even

I've probably got another 10 years of jumping left in me and I want to try and do some more

jumping if I can I reckon at least it will be right behind you Eddie we appreciate your time

thanks so much great to speak to you no worries Thank you