Eddie The Eagle Edwards

And what successes! Eddie has held the British Ski Jumping Record (73.5m), a stunt jumping world record – jumping over 10 cars and six buses – and competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics, where he was the first ski jumper to represent Britain (although he came last in both the 70m and 90m events).

One rumour is that Eddie often couldn’t see where he was going because his glasses would frequently steam up! Eddie has also been quoted as saying that he was afraid of jumping.

An early example of a media celebrity who is adored by the public for his less than perfect performances, Eddie Edwards has used that notoriety to forge an impressive career as a TV personality and presenter, run with the Olympic Torch in 2010, publish a book, appear in several advertisements, record some songs – in Finnish – and be a successful motivational speaker.

"Eddie was certainly a hit – and fit in very well with the tone of mkodo! Everyone was very excited after the event, and it was brilliant having him with us." - Georgina, Mkodo

"Everything went really well with Eddie and the feedback from staff has been great. He's such a lovely, genuine man and to hear his story was very interesting and motivating" - Sarah, Get Busy

“Eddie was great and went down really well with everyone – there were loads of laughs and everyone enjoyed his story – photo opportunity afterwards went down really well too!” - Janice Ear, Support Manager, BDGT

“Eddie was fantastic and really contributed to the whole event. All who met him had nothing but praise for him.” - Jo White, Marches School

“I wanted to say that we loved Eddie, he was an inspirational, funny and down to earth delight who the students easily engaged with. We have wanted to have him at Dean Close for many years, as a local boy, so it was great to finally achieve it. Please pass our grateful thanks to him and we wish him well in his future.” - Balcarras & Dean Close School

“Just wanted to say a huge thank you to Eddie! What an absolutely lovely guy. He was brilliant with everyone and really made the day very special. I hope he enjoyed it as much as everyone else did here. We would love to have him back as all the kids, parents and organisers want to run the event next year and of course bigger!” - Sandown Ski Centre

“He was extremely friendly and interesting to talk too and we had a good chat in the Green Room whilst he was waiting to go on. What a lovely man! After delegates spend the day being ‘talked at’, where possible we always like to end our conference by having someone with an inspirational, heart-warming and interesting tale to tell mixed with just the right amount of humour to finish up, and Eddie did just that. He seemed to be a popular choice and some wanted to have their photo taken with him and talk to him afterwards, and he was most happy to stay and chat.” - Christine Cottrell, ESSA

"It went very well yesterday. Eddie was great and came across so lovely. There was tonnes of questions and everyone really enjoyed it so thank you!" - Kathryn, Fresenius Kabi