Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards is one of the most famous underdogs in sporting history after competing in the ski jump at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada
Eddie The Eagle has revealed how he was a “charity case” before the Olympics – scavenging food from bins and kipping in his motor. The ski-jumper had only taken up the sport 22 months earlier, honing his skills at Gloucester Ski Centre’s artificial slopes before the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.
He branded himself a “charity case,” getting ready for Lake Placid’s 1980 Olympics by shifting snow in return for complimentary slope training – whilst using kit from the lost and found. “I was scraping food out of bins,” Edwards revealed on the BBC’s Sport’s Greatest Underdogs podcast.
“The more I could ski jump, the better I could get and, even if I had $100 left, I wanted to make that $100 last. I thought ‘if I just buy bread and milk and scrape food out of bins and sleep in the car, I can stay out here for three months’.”
Eddie – born Michael Edwards – hailing from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, admits he even dozed in his vehicle during -25C temperatures. Following guidance from his dad, a builder, Eddie would strike up friendships with chefs and hotel kitchen staff hoping to bag a complimentary bite.
“I asked hotels if they needed any work doing… I met two brothers and they let me cut their grass and gave me a free meal,” Eddie disclosed on the podcast.
“One of the brothers was a chef. If I was passing the hotel and he saw me, he’d open the window and lob me a tin of beans or pears. I’d think ‘oh great, that’s my meal for tonight’.
“The British Scout groups where I was staying would give me their spare food before they went home. They were lovely.
“For the other jumpers at the time, they stayed in five-star hotels. They had the doctors, psychologists, and there was just me on my own.
“I was like a charity case really. It was tough – but I had so much fun.”
