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Michael Edwards (born 5 December 1963), better known as Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, is a British skier who in 1988 became the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping. At the time, he was the British ski jumping record holder (a record later broken by others), the world number nine in amateur speed skiing, () and the stunt jumping world record holder (10 cars/6 buses). Finishing last in the 70m and 90m events, he became famous as an example of an underdog or "heroic failure", and of perseverance and achievement without funding. ==Background== Edwards was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. A good downhill skier, he narrowly missed out on the GB team for that event for the 1984 Games. To improve his chances to qualify for Calgary in 1988, he moved to Lake Placid in the US to train and enter races of a higher standard, but he quickly found himself short on funds. To realise his Olympic dream, he decided to switch to ski jumping for reasons of cost and easier qualification as there were no other British ski jumpers with whom to compete for a place. Edwards began jumping under the eye of John Viscome and Chuck Berghorn in Lake Placid, NY, using Berghorn's equipment, although he had to wear six pairs of socks to make the boots fit. He was handicapped by his weight—at about 82 kg (181 lb), more than 9 kg (20 lb) heavier than the next heaviest competitor—and by his lack of financial support for training—he was totally self-funded. Another problem was that he was very farsighted, requiring him to wear his eyeglasses at all times, which during ski jumps fogged to such an extent that he could not see. Edwards was informed of his qualification for the Games while working as a plasterer and residing temporarily in a Finnish mental hospital due to lack of funds for alternative accommodation (rather than as a patient).〔(Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards - Olympic legend ) YouTube〕 He first represented Great Britain at the 1987 World Championships and was ranked 55th in the world. This performance qualified him, as the sole British applicant, for the 1988 Winter Olympics ski jumping competition. Edwards was the best ski jumper in the United Kingdom, setting a British record of 73.5 m in one of his Calgary jumps in 1988. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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