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Eddie the Eagle soars once more
Britain's most popular ski jumper sets his sights on gold in Nagano.
Or at least on being allowed to compete.

The buzz
He's back. Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards, the British ski jumper who hit the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary like an errant slushball, is airborne again. With a sharp wit and the very un-aerodynamic body of a Gloucestershire construction worker, the Olympic everyman has set his sights on the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

After cashing in on his fleeting fame by becoming a side-show attraction, jumping cars and busses (ten of the former, six of the latter are personal bests), Edwards is now training year-round in Lake Placid, New York. He faces an obstacle even greater than a row of Fords. Since the Calgary controversy, Olympic officials have instituted a new rule designed to keep out rogue athletes like Edwards. The Eagle, like everyone else, has to compete internationally prior to the Olympics, and he has to place much better than his dead-last finish at Calgary.


What's new
Eddie the Eagle is trying to abandon his reckless-abandonment jumping style that sports-highlight shows drooled over during the Calgary Olympics. No more trademark flailing arms and skis; he's converting to the "V" jumping style that has become the standard among international competitors, and he will be jumping on a 90-meter artificial hill all summer to make up for lost time.



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