Eddie the Eagle on teaching Rob and Romesh to ski and sleeping in a cow shed to chase his Winter Olympic dream

It’s Winter Olympics time, which means just like the summer games it’s time to become fully invested in sports we don’t entirely understand — the rare occasion we all just get swept up in the emotion of how well someone is able to cross-country ski while doing a spot of rifle shooting.

Whether you’re au fait with all that’s happening in Milan and Cortina, with the XXV Winter Olympic Games underway, there’s a good chance you’ve probably heard the name Eddie the Eagle. At the 1988 Games in Calgary, Michael Edwards became the first athlete to compete for Team GB in ski jumping at an Olympic Games.

Eddie the Eagle making Olympic history! - YouTube

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He didn’t leave Canada with a gold medal around his neck. He did, however, come away with the love and admiration of the millions that saw him achieve his dream to compete in the Olympics, when the odds were so heavily stacked against him to do it.

His Olympic journey was put on the big screen in the 2016 film Eddie the Eagle, while Edwards continues to share both on and off the slopes how he made it to the top of that hill in 1988.

Ahead of cheering on runners at the 2026 edition of the Cancer Research UK London Winter Run and inspiring others to sign up for the 2027 edition of the London Winter Run, we grabbed Eddie for a chat to find out if he still has love for the slopes and when we might actually see the next Team GB ski jumping hopeful.

The thrill of skiing hasn’t melted over the years

37 years on from Calgary, Edwards still spends a considerable amount of time slipping on his ski boots. That’s in between getting on his bike (mountain or road), doing a bit of dancing or going for a run, if his achilles isn’t playing up.

“I still love getting skis on and going skiing,” Edwards says with a beaming smile on his face.

“It doesn't matter whether it's at my local dry ski slope in Gloucester or the indoor ski slopes we have with real snow. Or out in the mountains somewhere in France, Italy, Austria, Germany or Bulgaria. I still get a buzz when I get my skis on.

"It's a slightly different feeling now because I can relax more. Back in the day, it was always training and getting ready for my next competition. Now it’s lovely because there’s no pressure. I can just ski, have fun, stop for coffee and there's no pressure whatsoever.”

Rob vs Romesh vs skiing

Edwards, now a qualified ski instructor, gives skiers of all abilities the chance to join him out on the piste and to even dine out and quiz him on one of his Ski Weekends. He put those instructor skills to the test when he joined comedy duo Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganthan for the Winter Olympics special of Rob & Romesh Vs. Something that Edwards had a lot of fun filming around this time last year.

“I think one of them had had one or two lessons on an indoor ski slope, but I think it'll be a while yet before they'll be ready for the Winter Olympics, " laughed Edwards.

“We actually filmed that on Valentine's Day last year, because my partner was really upset. She came to Saint Moritz with me and then here I was on this lovely horse sleigh ride going through Saint Moritz and it was with Rob and Romesh and not with my partner. She said I wouldn't love to have been on that horse sleigh ride going through St Moritz with me, rather than two comedians.”

So, who would be his dream guest to join him for a weekend of skiing?

“Hugh Jackman would be great to go out with, " he says.

“I spent a bit of time with him when we were promoting the film ten years ago. It would be nice to have somebody like him come out and ski with him for a week. I do bump into quite a few different people especially when I do festivals. I’ve skied with a few other comedians like Marcus Brigstocke. Some are better skiers than others, but it’s always great fun.”

The next Eddie the Eagle could be years away

A glance at the roster of Team GB athletes for this year’s Winter games shows an absence of any ski jumpers. There hasn’t been a representative in the games since 2002, and Edwards believes the dearth of athletes making it to the games isn’t going to change anytime soon.

“It doesn’t surprise me that we don’t have a ski jumper in the British Olympic team, because we don’t have a ski jump in the UK,” he tells us.

“You’ve got to travel so far to jump. I think my nearest ski jump is in Courchevel in France. That's like 700 to 1,000 miles away. Courchevel is very expensive as well. Until we can build a ski jump centre in the UK only then we can produce our own homegrown talent. Even then, once we’ve built it, it'll still take another 10 years before we start seeing the results.

“We were looking at the prospect of building one about 10 years ago. The only trouble was when the film came out. I was so busy with the film and off the back of the film, doing talks, motivational talks all over the world and I didn't have enough time to devote to actually where we would build it and what kind of centre would be built. It's something that we do want to look at again in the future.”

Getting to the Olympics through the kindness of strangers

There’s many reasons why Eddie’s story was the perfect fit for the big screen. None more so than the sacrifices he made to be near to the places thousands miles away from home. Places where he could train regularly to get him closer to the Olympics and lean on advice from everyone including the kids of ski jump coaches. All while facing the obstacles many athletes still face today.

"I had no money, no sponsorship,” Edwards explains. “Different teams gave me equipment. The Italian team gave me a helmet, the West German team gave me a suit. The Austrian team gave me a pair of skis."

"Even some people who owned a hotel in a village near where I trained helped me,” he says.

“They were two brothers and I used to cut their grass for them in the summer and they would give me a free meal. Back then, I used to pass their hotel to and from the jumps. If I was passing by and one of the brothers, who was a chef and he was in the kitchen, would give me a tin of beans or a tin of pears. I thought, Oh, great, that's my meal for tonight.

"I slept in the back of my car, in the back of a van. in a cow shed, slept in barns and in a psychiatric hospital. I scraped food out of bins. I just did anything I could do that would allow me to stay for an extra day, weekend, week or month.”

Aspiring Winter Olympians should just give it a go

Edwards, like many other Winter Olympics viewers, has enjoyed catching the action from all the events. Whether that’s the tricks on show during the snowboarding, or ski cross, an event which basically involves four guys racing down a course where there’s lots of barging and jumps to contend with. An event he would’ve loved to have done, but wasn't invented for another 15 years after he retired from skiing.

So what if you’ve caught the Winter Olympics and are wondering if you should give one of the events a go?

“If anybody watching is interested in any of the particular sports, I would encourage them all to just go out and give it a go,” says Edwards.

"You never know what might happen. You might end up going down a route that you never, ever thought about.

"It could be figure skating. It could be curling, maybe bobsleigh. We've got a bobsleigh push down in Bath, so you could get into a bit of training there to see whether you've got potential to become a bobsledder, a skeleton or a luge driver or get into ski jumping.

"I was inspired by watching the Olympics when I was a kid. I thought wow, I want to be like them.

"I didn't know I was going to do it in the ski jump. That’s just the way it turned out. It worked for me and it can work for anybody else.”

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