Ski jumper “Eddie the Eagle,” otherwise known as Michael “Eddie” Edwards, is from England (Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, to be exact)—but he got his start on skis in the Italian Alps.
Edwards’ story has been delighting audiences in the U.S. recently as the Disney movie bearing his sporting moniker has debuted in theaters. Edwards’ struggles with farsightedness (he had to wear thick eyeglasses beneath his ski goggles) and tour money (he was originally a ski racer, and a very good one) are shown in a charming performance by British actor Taron Egerton (Kingsman).
In a Q&A with The Guardian, Edwards recounts how he learned to ski at age 13 “on a school trip to Italy.” After a few years of skiing dry slopes in Gloucester (yes, there is such a thing as dry-slope skiing), Edwards took a job with a ski-touring company in Colle di Tenda, Limone-Piemonte.
“I got to know every square inch of the resort, both on and off piste,” Edwards told The Guardian. Although he didn’t try ski jumping until about five years later in Lake Placid, New York, “My time in Colle di Tenda was great training for ski jumping,” he said. While there, he’d jumped over cars and snow cats and “spend half the run in the air.”
Edwards loves the mountains: “the scenery. . .I love snow, and fresh air, and atmosphere.” He loves skiing so much that he says if he had to ski just one run all day every day on a vacation, that would be fine, because “I can ski [one run] in so many ways.”
This winter, Edwards starting jumping again, his first jumps in two decades, for a group raising money for Ski 4 Cancer in France’s Courchevel. He says he’s in as good physical shape as ever and wants to jump more, so perhaps one of these days he’ll return to the Italian slopes where he first learned to love the sport of skiing.
By Kathy McCabe
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