Glenshee job put Eddie on slippery slope to world fame

With his wispy moustache, trademark grin and supersized milk-bottle specs which steamed up on the slopes, Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards was mocked mercilessly by the ski industry.

But the plasterer from Gloucestershire rocketed to stardom as Britain’s lone, and last-placed, ski jumper at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

Michael Edwards was the first competitor for 60 years to represent Great Britain in an Olympic skijumping competition.

Underfunded and under-prepared, he famously finished last in both the 70m and 90m events.

It was a heroic failure and to most, Eddie was a true hero whose perseverance and dedication paid off.

Five years before the Calgary Olympics, Eddie worked as a ski instructor in Glenshee.

“I’d been touring round Europe in my VW caravanette and I decided to hotfoot it to Glenshee in 1983,” said the 57-year-old.

“I went there primarily to race, but I got a job with the Cairnwell ski school and ended up working there and staying in Glenshee for eight to 10 weeks.

“We didn’t get great weather unfortunately – there were only a handful of clear-blue-sky days.

“The rest of the time it was either misty, foggy or cloudy and sometimes the wind would blow you up the hill faster than you could ski down.

“The Tiger (a notorious black run) was often sheet ice. You just gritted your teeth and weaved your way down.

“Sometimes there was lovely powder snow and sometimes it was bare with rocks everywhere, or slushy.”

Eddie alternated between living in his caravanette in the main car park and renting a room in a house at the Spittal of Glenshee.

When it came to apresski, Eddie said, while Glenshee’s offerings weren’t quite up to Alpine standards, he enjoyed many nights hanging out in pubs and hotels with ski centre staff.

“A lot of people congregated in local joints like the Spittal of Glenshee Hotel down the road – ski instructors, lift attendants, piste bashers and holidaymakers,” he said.

“There was a little community there. You always had somewhere to go to chat to people and have fun.”

On days off, Eddie loved “being a tourist” taking trips to Braemar and Blairgowrie, exploring the Cairngorm countryside and popping into coffee shops.

After working a season at Glenshee, he headed off to the international ski circuit.

Strapped for cash and with no sponsors behind him, it was a major struggle.

Ultimately, he needed to find something cheaper to do or go back to plastering in the UK with his dad.

An epiphany came while he was in Lake Placid, New York, when he spotted skijumpers flying through the air.

He said: “I asked if I could have a go and started ski jumping, which was a lot cheaper than Alpine ski racing. It was an economic decision really.”

Eddie continued to eke out a meagre existence, while learning the sport for which he would become famous.

“If that meant sleeping in the car, scraping food out of bins and getting odd jobs here and there, that was what I’d do,” he said.

Eddie would do anything to indulge his passion to jump. He was a man on a mission and nothing would stop him.

He constantly injured himself and following one botched landing, he continued with his head tied up in a pillowcase to keep a broken jaw in place.

As a young working-class lad competing in the world of privileged posh folk, Eddie also faced crushing snobbery and ridicule.

However, after Calgary,

Eddie – who held the British ski jumping record from 1988 to 2001 – emerged more famous than any other competitor.

His cheery British humour and unstoppable determination had endeared him to the world.

He threw himself into all sorts of celebrity odd-jobs with the same abandon that had inspired him to launch himself off deathdefying platforms, even recording pop songs.

Rich beyond his wildest dreams – he earned more

than £500,000 the year after the Olympics and could command £10,000 an hour to open golf courses or shopping centres – Eddie stashed his cash in a trust fund.

When the trust went bust in 1991, he declared bankruptcy and sued them for mismanagement, eventually winning a settlement.

Wisely, he had never given up his career as a plasterer and was able to get ad-hoc work in the building trade while

promoting his alter ego of Eddie the Eagle.

Despite having skied for more than 40 years, Eddie claims he’s “not a very good” skier.

With ski centres closed, the divorced dad of two hasn’t been able to indulge his great passion.

“If it gets too much faff to ski in Europe with Covid and Brexit, you’ll maybe see me at Glenshee much more often,” he said.

“I have such fond memories of it and I’d love to go back and ski there.”

HIGH FLYER: Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, pictured in 1986, became a household name when he competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

The Spittal of Glenshee Hotel was a popular haunt for Eddie during his time in Scotland.

Eddie was a sporting celebrity in his heyday in 1988.