A biography for Eddie the Eaglehasn’t been written yet.
“People say I wasn't a real athlete, but I trained hard. It's possible to take something seriously and still have fun at it, you know.”
“I have a big chin. Thick glasses.”
“The worst thing that happened to me as a child was seeing my brother get pushed into a cement mixer.”
“It's nice and restful, plastering.”
“If you are in your sport for your country, you should be able to go to the Olympic Games and represent your sport for your country bringing people together in the interests of sport. It's a fantastic Olympic ideal, and I uphold it as much as I can.”
“I was exemplifying the Olympian who took up a challenge as a sportsman, without a trainer, in a country without mountains and without snow. And, inside of two years, I was representing my country.”
“People seemed to appreciate how much I wanted to pursue something I loved. They seemed to understand how much ski jumping meant to me.”
“When I started competing, I was so broke that I had to tie my helmet with a piece of string. On one jump, the string snapped, and my helmet carried on farther than I did. I may have been the first ski jumper ever beaten by his gear.”
“In my case, there are only two kinds of hope - Bob Hope and no hope.”
“I would never think of asking a girl out on the High Street or the disco or at school. But on the ski slope, I would chat to all the girls.”
“I think because I'm so naturally happy and unaffected and open, people thought I didn't take the jumping seriously. You're up that high, believe me - you take it very seriously.”
“In the right circumstances, terror is good. It makes you focus.”
“I won't win a World Cup, and I won't win the Olympics, but I'm sure I can compete with the best, and that's what I want to show.”
“As a child, I was always getting into risky situations with the potential to hurt myself, but mum and dad never stopped me doing what I wanted to do, and they assumed that if I fell and hurt myself, I would learn from that and maybe not do it again.”
“My dad supported me by working extra hours and giving me a little bit of extra money. He bought my camper van for me so I could go into Europe and drive from competition to competition.”
“It takes a lot of guts to jump. If people criticise, I would give them a set of skis and say, 'Do it yourself then.'”
“I wore No. 24 at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada - one bib on the back and one on the front - and those are like my medals.”
“My brother is 18 months older than me, and my sister is three years younger. I'm the middle one. I was born in Cheltenham, and that's where I grew up.”
“Once I was making £10,000 for an hour's work, but there have been years where my promotional stuff has brought in only a few hundred.”
“I don't like bullies or selfishness or people who are grumpy.”