Eddie the Eagle brought ski jumping into limelight (News Feature)

By David Hein Feb 12, 2010, 0:22 GMT

Whistler, Canada - When Gregor Schlierenzauer and company haul themselves off the Whistler normal hill in the quest for Olympic gold on Saturday, memories will go back to the 1988 Calgary Games.

Finland's Matti Nykaenen famously won all three ski-jumping golds there in the sport, but he and the other top jumpers were somewhat upstaged by a Briton known as 'Eddie the Eagle.'

Michael Edwards brought ski-jumping from the back to the front pages with his inspirational and humorous showing and still lives off his legacy as one of the first fleeting athletes just thrilled to be at the Olympics.

Edwards turned out to be one of the biggest stars in Calgary despite turning in one of the worst performances by an Olympic athlete, finishing last on the normal and large hill.

'On a world class standard it wasn't very good at all. But I had only been jumping for 20 months when I was at Calgary. Everyone else had been jumping for 20 years when they were at Calgary. So there was no way I was going to beat anybody.

'I knew that I was going to come last. But it was still wonderful,' said Edwards in a telephone interview with German Press Agency dpa conducted ahead of the Vancouver Games.

Edwards, now 46, qualified to participate in 1988 as Britain's best - and only - ski-jumper.

Eddie the Eagle, who ended up jumping a British record 71 metres, gave the sport a much-needed jolt of publicity as an oddity which captivated the Olympic world 22 years ago just as much as the Jamaican bobsled team did.

The Canadian crowds loved Edwards, who did not look like any of the other ski jumpers while also drawing comparisons to the cartoon character Mister Magoo because of his large glasses.

He was invited back to Canada for the 20th anniversary of the Calgary Games in 2008 and last month, on January 7, was a torch bearer for the Vancouver Games in Winnipeg.

The majority of his fellow ski-jumpers also loved Eddie's shtick, which included having to be at the top of the jumping hill well in advance so that his glasses would not fog up.

'Most jumpers thought it was great because all the publicity which was being thrust upon me was being thrust upon the sport of ski- jumping. It made the sport much more popular,' said Edwards.

He also felt it was a positive that he was gaining popularity despite his poor results.

'If I got popular because of it, it just goes to show that you don't need to be the best athlete in the world to be popular. And it's not always about winning, which I think is a very good message to portray,' said Edwards.

He used his popularity from Calgary 1988 to record two songs in Finnish, contributed to a book and video titled 'On the Piste,' and appeared on various television shows and commercials in Britain.

But not everyone appreciated Edwards, who they believed was making a mockery of the sports.

The ruling ski body FIS introduced new qualifying rules which effectively kicked him out of the Olympics as he failed to meet the criteria for the following Winter Games before retiring for good.

'I felt like I was doing a really good job in promoting the sport around the world. It was just a shame that so many people in authority did not see it that way and wanted to put an end to it. It was a bit of a shame,' he said.