Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards

With little skill for his sport, Olympic skier Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards won the hearts and minds of the public with his heroic failures, and he remains one of the best loved athletes today; in fact, his life has been depicted in the biographical film Eddie the Eagle (2016), and he has also appeared as the coach on Channel 4 programme ‘The Jump’. In the words of the president of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics: “some competitors have won gold, some have broken records and one has even flown like an eagle”.