Eddie Eagle Edwards
Winter Olympian & Inspirational Speaker
Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards is an inspiring, fun and entertaining after-dinner speaker and motivational speaker
Eddie came to the forefront of people’s attention in 1988 when he competed for Great Britain at the Winter Olympics. Despite coming last in the ski jump, Eddie became famous for summing up the Olympic spirit and for his determination to represent his country without any form of funding.
Eddie learned to ski at his local dry ski slope and quickly became an accomplished downhill skier, but missed out on the 1984 Olympics. To realise his dreams and with a shortage of funds and the easier qualification, he decided to switch to ski jumping as there were no other British ski jumpers with whom to compete for a place.
Despite being ranked 55th in the World his performance at the 1987 World Championship was good enough to qualify for the 1988 Olympics. He was at the time the British ski jumping record holder despite finishing last in the 70m and 90m events.
In 1988 he fulfilled his dreams and competed in the Winter Olympics, and despite making considerable advances in his performances, he failed to qualify for the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Games.
After retiring from ski jumping, Eddie went on the become the world number nine in amateur speed skiing, (106.8 mph / 171.9 km/h).
Eddie continues to work as a commentator for programmes such as ITV’s ‘The Jump’ and has taken part in numerous TV shows ranging from Sport Relief to the celebrity diving show ‘Splash’ which he won.
Eddie is Patron of the charity Ski 4 Cancer and spends much of his time helping them wherever he can. He returned to ski jumping in 2015 to raise funds for Ski 4 Cancer.
A film about Eddie’s life starring Taron Egerton as Eddie and Hugh Jackman as his trainer was released in 2016 to much acclaim.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Eddie the Eagle Edwards has a warm and welcoming personality and is reflected in his speaking event. He talks on –
• Overcoming adversity,
• Personal endurance,
• Never taking no for an answer
• Teamwork
"Eddie was fantastic and really contributed to the whole event. All who met him had nothing but praise for him."
— Jo White, Marches School
"Eddie was great and went down really well with everyone – there were loads of laughs, and everyone enjoyed his story – photo opportunity afterward went down really well too!"
— Janice Ear, Support Manager, BDGT
"I wanted to say that we loved Eddie, he was an inspirational, funny and down to earth delight who the students easily engaged with. We have wanted to have him at Dean Close for many years, as a local boy, so it was great to finally achieve it. Please pass our grateful thanks to him and we wish him well in his future."
— Balcarras & Dean Close School
"He was extremely friendly and interesting to talk too, and we had a good chat in the Green Room whilst he was waiting to go on. What a lovely man! After delegates spend the day being ‘talked at,’ where possible we always like to end our conference by having someone with an inspirational, heart-warming and interesting tale to tell mixed with just the right amount of humour to finish up, and Eddie did just that. He seemed to be a popular choice, and some wanted to have their photo taken with him and talk to him afterward, and he was most happy to stay and chat."
— Christine Cottrell, ESSA
"The event was a huge success! Eddie was amazing, and we couldn’t have asked for a better VIP guest."
— PHS Data Solutions
"Just wanted to say a huge thank you to Eddie! What an absolutely lovely guy. He was brilliant with everyone and really made the day very special. I hope he enjoyed it as much as everyone else did here. We would love to have him back as all the kids, parents and organisers want to run the event next year and of course bigger."
— Sandown Ski Centre
