The one and only Eddie the Eagle makes use of University of Bath facilities
Iconic British ski jumper Michael ‘Eddie the Eagle’ Edwards paid tribute to the “beautiful” facilities at the Sports Training Village after using the bobsleigh push-start track in an advert shoot.
The 52-year old, best known for being Great Britain’s first Olympic ski jumper for 59 years when he appeared at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, took to the sled for the first time since a short stint during which he trained as a bobsleigh driver.
Cheltenham-born Edwards was at the STV for the filming of an advert for a car manufacturer and, speaking of his first-ever visit to the University of Bath, he praised the facilities on campus.
“I’ve never been here before but the facilities look fantastic,” he said. “It’s a beautiful venue here. I wish I was young again, I’d have loved to have come here!”
Edwards’ timely visit came during a period in which University of Bath-based swimmers Jazz Carlin and Siobhan-Marie O’Connor have won Olympic silver medals and the former downhill skiier was quick to praise the special appeal of the Olympic Games.
He said: “It was always a dream of mine to go to an Olympic Games. I used to watch the Olympics on TV and I thought about how great it must be to be so good at your sport that you represent your country.
“I see the facilities and funding here and it makes me think how much better I could have been if I had been given the right opportunities and training,” Edwards, who was self-funded throughout the majority of his career, continued.
“I would have been performing better as an athlete – I wouldn’t have had to worry about where my next bed was going to be, or what my next meal was.
“But the special thing about the Olympics is that people from any background can compete – whether they receive funding or, like in my case, they’re self-funded.
“That’s why I became so popular in Calgary – I was exemplifying the Olympic Spirit. Here was this tiny little David against these Goliath ski-jumping nations. I came from a country with no snow, I had no money, I received no funding and yet I still managed to go to those Olympic Games.
“I made my dream come true, and people thought ‘this is what the Olympics should be about.'”
