Early jumping Edwards began jumping under the supervision of John Viscome and Chuck Berghorn in
Lake Placid, New York, using Berghorn's equipment, although he had to wear six pairs of socks to make the boots fit. He was disadvantaged by his weight—at about , more than heavier than the next heaviest competitor—and by his lack of financial support for training, being totally self-funded. Another problem was that he was very
far-sighted, wearing thick glasses under his goggles, which would mist up at altitude.
1988 Winter Olympics During the
1988 Winter Olympics in
Calgary, Edwards competed in and finished last in both the
70 m and
90 m events. In the 70 m, he scored 69.2 points from two jumps of 55.0 m; second-last
Bernat Solà Pujol of Spain scored 140.4 points from 71 m and 68.5 m jumps; winner
Matti Nykänen of Finland had 229.1 points from 89.5 m jumps. In the 90 m, Edwards scored 57.5 points from 71 m and 67 m jumps; second-last Todd Gilman of Canada had 110.8 points from 96 m and 86.5 m; Nykänen won again, with 224 points from 118.5 m and 107 m. From the beginning, the press version of his story was "embroidered with falsehoods". His lack of success endeared him to people around the globe. He subsequently became a media celebrity and appeared on talk shows around the world, appearing on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson during the Games. Press outlets nicknamed him "
Mr. Magoo", and one Italian journalist called him a "ski dropper". At the closing ceremony, the president of the Organising Committee, Frank King, singled out Edwards for his contribution. King said, addressing the competitors, "You have broken world records and you have established personal bests. Some of you have even soared like an eagle." Others, including Bengt-Erik Bengtsson, head of the Nordic division of the International Ski Federation, criticised Edwards as being an
Olympic tourist and distracting attention away from the accomplishment of other more capable athletes. The East German newspaper
Junge Welt labelled Edwards a "clown". Edwards failed to qualify for the
1992 Winter Olympics in
Albertville, or the
1994 Games in
Lillehammer. He got a five-year sponsorship from Eagle Airlines, a small British charter company, to support his attempt to reach the
1998 Games in
Nagano; by this time he was reportedly jumping distances of 85m and 115m on the 90m and 120m jumps respectively, Edwards was chosen as a torchbearer in the relay for the
2010 Vancouver Olympics. He ran with the torch on 7 January 2010 in
Winnipeg. Edwards released a book (and a video) called
On the Piste. In 1991, he recorded a single in Finnish entitled "Mun nimeni on Eetu" ("My name is Eetu"), B-sided with "Eddien Siivellä" ("On Eddie's Wing"), though he does not speak Finnish. Edwards learned the lyrics phonetically and the song reached No. 2 in the Finnish charts. "Mun nimeni on Eetu" was written by Finnish singer
Irwin Goodman. Edwards appeared in a number of advertising campaigns, e.g. on television, promoting cars, and commanded fees of £10,000 an hour. Nevertheless, he declared bankruptcy in 1992, claiming that a trust fund for his earnings was not set up properly. In 2003, he graduated from
De Montfort University in Leicester with a degree in law. "I've been interested in law since taking out a civil action against my trustees 10 years ago", he said in an interview in 2001. On February 25, 2012, he appeared as a competitor on episode 2 of
BBC1's ''
Let's Dance for Sport Relief, 2012'' and got through to the final on most public votes. His performances were accompanied by the
Royal British Legion Band & Corps of Drums Romford. In 2013, he won the first series of the British celebrity diving programme
Splash!, mentored by
Tom Daley. In January 2014, he commentated on the
Channel 4 TV programme
The Jump, where 12 famous people took part in winter sports. As part of each episode, Edwards jumped off the largest of three ski jumps. In the same year, he appeared as a guest on the
ITV2 comedy show
Fake Reaction. In 2017, he returned to the ski jumping facilities at
Canada Olympic Park, where he had taken part in the Olympics in 1988, to make some jumps that were his first in over 15 years. In 2024, he appeared as a contestant on the
sixteenth series of
Dancing on Ice. Edwards was brought in as a replacement after
Stephen Lustig-Webb was forced to withdraw from the series. ==Biopic==