{"id":71636,"date":"2023-02-16T09:50:42","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T08:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/premium-speakers.com\/?post_type=speaker&#038;p=71636"},"modified":"2026-01-05T07:16:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T06:16:01","slug":"michael-thomas-edwards","status":"publish","type":"speaker","link":"https:\/\/premium-speakers.com\/en\/speaker-presenter\/michael-thomas-edwards\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Thomas Edwards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Michael Thomas Edwards, better known as &#8220;Eddie the Eagle&#8221;, is a winter sportsman who was the first British athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics in the discipline of ski jumping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A bricklayer by training, he was a talented downhill skier who switched sports to ski jumping to realise his Olympic dream due to financial problems. In 1987, Eddie became the first British ski jumper to compete in the World Championships in Oberstdorf, qualifying for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. With a distance of 71 metres, Eddie finished 58th and thus last at the Winter Olympics. Nevertheless, he won the hearts of sports fans all over the world. Despite his modest sporting performance, he was the darling of the public and a guest on many TV shows, as he embodied the Olympic idea of &#8220;being there is everything&#8221; like no other. Michael Thomas Edward was the publicity face of many well-known TV advertising campaigns and successfully completed his law degree at De Montfort University in Leicester on the side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-michael-thomas-edward-s-keynote\">Michael Thomas Edward&#8217;s Keynote:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>&#8220;My Life as Britain&#8217;s First and Last Olympic Ski Jumper&#8221;<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2016, Eddie&#8217;s life story was brought to cinemas worldwide as a Hollywood blockbuster by Matthew Vaughn. It starred Hugh Jackman in the role of his coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael Edwards is also active as a keynote speaker. He regularly gives motivational talks according to his motto : &#8220;Winning is not just about coming first in a competition, but never losing the fun of something.&#8221; His keynote speech &#8220;My Life as Britain&#8217;s First and Last Olympic Ski Jumper&#8221; describes the extremely rocky road to the Olympic Games in Calgary without any support from the British federation, but with a lot of scorn and ridicule from the competition. The keynote describes the extremely moving life story of one of the worst, but most popular ski jumpers in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Thomas Edwards, better known as &#8220;Eddie the Eagle&#8221;, is a winter sportsman who was the first British athlete to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":71624,"menu_order":0,"template":"","tags":[],"speaker-category":[16586,16598,16603,16606,16591,16597,16599],"speaker-topic":[16660,16654,16623,16644,16662],"speaker-type":[16665,16667],"speaker-gender":[16670],"speaker-language":[16572],"class_list":["post-71636","speaker","type-speaker","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","speaker-category-adventure-experiences","speaker-category-celebrities","speaker-category-entertainment","speaker-category-impact-performance","speaker-category-leadership","speaker-category-online-speaker","speaker-category-sports","speaker-topic-change-management","speaker-topic-coach","speaker-topic-leadership-4-0","speaker-topic-motivation-strategy","speaker-topic-work-life-balance","speaker-type-interview-guest","speaker-type-keynote-speaker","speaker-gender-men","speaker-language-english"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.8 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Michael Thomas Edwards - Keynote Speaker &#8211; 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