Calgary '88 icon Eddie the Eagle returns to carry 2010 Olympic torch

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Michael Edwards has been remembered as the Olympics' most-beloved loser, and the famously inexperienced British ski jumper was called everything from a clown prince to a buffoon when he placed a distant last at the 1988 Calgary Winter Games.

But more than two decades later, the man better known as Eddie the Eagle says his story still endures because of what he represented to the thousands of fans chanting his name as he launched off a ski jump into Calgary's frigid February air.

"I think I was exemplifying that whole Olympic spirit - a true amateur sportsman coming to a sporting event just because he loved his sport and loved doing it," Edwards, 45, says from his home in Stroud, England.

"I had no money, no training, no snow - nothing. And I begged, borrowed and stole equipment and slept in cars and cow sheds to realize my dream of going to the Olympic Games. And for me, going to the Olympic Games was my gold medal."

Eddie the Eagle is about to become part of another Canadian Olympics, this time as a torchbearer along the relay for the 2010 Vancouver Games. He'll carry the flame as it passes through Winnipeg in January.

Many Canadians will remember Edwards for his thick pop-bottle glasses that magnified his eyes and often fogged up when he jumped, and his bright humour, playing along when people joked that paramedics should be on alert for his landings.

Edwards had been ski jumping for just two years with no training or funding in his home country when he arrived in Canada as the one-man British team.

He started skiing when he was 13 years old and almost made the British downhill team for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

When he didn't make the cut, he moved to Lake Placid, N.Y., planning to try his hand at North American competitions, but it didn't take long before he ran out of money.

"So I looked for something cheaper to do, and I saw the ski jumps and I thought, 'Well, Britain has lots of alpine skiers, cross-country skiers, biathlon skiers, but we'd never had a jumper.' And I thought, 'I'll give it a go"' he says.

"The guys at the office in Lake Placid told me to just go down, there's a shed at the bottom with some skis and boots and helmet, and to help myself."

That was in January of 1986. By the end of the year, he competed in his first world cup. And two years later, he found himself at the top of a ski jump in Calgary.

"Just sitting on that bar with my skis on, getting ready, I thought, 'Well this is it, I've made it to the Olympic Games," says Edwards.

He placed at the very bottom in both of his events, finishing far behind even the second-last competitor.

While that didn't seem to matter to fans, not everyone was happy.

During the Games, ski officials said his Olympic appearance wasn't good for the sport, even though they acknowledged Edwards brought more attention to ski jumping than even the most decorated gold medallist.

And he was cited as the reason officials tightened requirements to qualify for an Olympic team, restricting spots to top-ranked athletes.

That effectively ended Eddie the Eagle's Olympic career.

"It was a bit ironic - I became so popular in Calgary because I was exemplifying that Olympic spirit and then I got banned because of it," says Edwards.

"These new rules go against the whole Olympic ideal. I think if you're the best athlete for your country at your sport, you should be able to go represent your country, irrespective of whether you're ranked in the top 50 in the world, or whether you're 10-millionth in the world."

He's often talked about in the same breath as the four-man Jamaican bobsled team that also competed in Calgary and inspired the movie "Cool Runnings" starring John Candy.

When Edwards takes hold of the torch next January in Winnipeg, fans of his 1988 performance may not recognize him right away.

He had implants put in his eyes to correct his vision, so he no longer wears glasses, and his jaw has been realigned after he broke it several times - mostly by ski jumping, of course.

He doesn't plan any antics that might harken back to his performance in 1988, but he still feels the pressure.

"I'm just going to probably run it," he says. "I hope I don't drop it, cause that would be a nuisance."