An Evening with Eddie The Eagle

The Courtyard in Hereford are hosting an evening with British Winter Olympics legend turned subject of award-winning Hollywood movie – Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards.

Find out all about his life and his career plus there’ll be a chance for you to ask some questions. Michael Edwards, better known as Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, was Born in Cheltenham. Eddie learnt to ski at his local dry ski slope and quickly became an accomplished downhill skier, narrowly missing out on being selected for the Great Britain ski team at the 1984 Games. To improve his chances of qualifying for the Calgary Olympics in 1988, he moved to Lake Placid in the US to train and enter races of a higher standard. However, he quickly found himself short on funds.

Eddie began ski jumping under the watchful eye of John Viscome and Chuck Berghorn in Lake Placid, using Chuck’s old equipment. Eddie had to wear six pairs of socks to make the boots fit!

Without any form of financial support for training, Eddie worked as a plasterer and even slept in a disused Finnish hospital for a short time to save enough money to keep his Olympic dreams alive.