If you don't remember Eddie the Eagle, then you did not...

[Maddy McCall]

come of age in the 1980s.





And, yes, that's a cigarette in his right hand. :D

[Maddy McCall]

1. Does nobody remember watching the Eagle soar at the '86 olympics?

Am I alone in this recollection?

[TheMightyFavog]

4. 88 Calgary games, not '86.

Remeber Dan Jansen?, Choked in the 500m and 1000m events?

[Maddy McCall]

5. Are you certain?

I would have sworn that it was 86. At least I was in the right decade.

:D

[Wetzelbill]

7. yup, '88

and the Jamaican Bobsled team too. I think they were in Calgary that year anyway.

[Maddy McCall]

8. It's all we talked about at work.

I've never been so entertained watching a sporting event.

Eddie was great! Well, not really, but he was entertaining. :D

By the way, he's available for speaking engagements. :silly:

http://www.nyt.co.uk/eddiethe.htm

[JVS]

14. They didn't do that winter olympics 2 years off of regular BS back then

IIRC the first Winter olympics that happened in a year without summer olymics were the 1994 Lillehammer games

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. 'Eagle soar'??

GAAAA! ASSCROFT EARWORM!!

:spank: :spank: :spank:

[hfojvt]

18. I was 24 in 1986

I remember Jim Craig and Eric Heiden, and maybe even Linda Fratiani, but I am not even sure what years those were. You'd think a northerner like me would pay more attention to winter sports, but there is no skiing in SD, except cross country. It was way too cold to skate, and hockey was played by thugs.
Do they have any snow-mobiling events? I never did that either. I think a drawback to the winter olympics is that, since you are at school all day, you cannot spend all day watching them, unlike the summer olympics.

[Suich]

2. Geez! I'd forgotten all about him!

He was an oddly funny guy!

[Maddy McCall]

3. He was great! It's the only time I sat spellbound in front of the TV...

during the Olympics.

:D

[Blue-Jay]

6. I remember Eddie the Eagle. He was great!

Eddie ranks right up there with the Jamaican bobsled team. I don't really remember how he made the Olympic team however. Did someone lose a bet?

[Maddy McCall]

9. No. Great Britain just didn't have a team. He was THE ski-jumping team...

from Great Britain. :D

Britain's first and only ski-jumper. LOL.

http://www.nyt.co.uk/eddiethe.htm

[HEyHEY]

10. Fly Eddie, Fly!

[SoCalDem]

11. Yep.. and they changed the damned rules after him (and the Jamaicans)

Those people are the real spirit of the Olympics..not the quasi-professional and real professionals.

Ho hum..our professional hockey players trounced the Gambian team or our professional basketball team demolished the Borneo team.. BFD..

I don't even watch the Olympics anymore, and I used to get up in the wee hours to watch stuff when it was being broadcast live from a far away place on the other side of the clock.

It's all so packaged and sound byted, it's nauseating..

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

13. Yeah, but the reason the IOC or the skiing federation changed the

rules was to make sure that the competitors wouldn't seriously hurt themselves.

I agree with your original premise re: the real spirit of the Olympics, but the argument about quasi-professionals, real professionals and amatuer athletes has been going since Pierre DeCoubertain(spelling?)got the modern Olympic games going again in 1896.

Ever heard of Jim Thorpe, All-American. He got his gold medals in track and field taken away because he played minor league baseball. Hell, it was even brought up in the movie Chariots of Fire, remember the coach that was banned from even being in the Olympic Stadium in Paris?

Like the Russian hockey team in the 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976 Winter Olympic Games weren't professionals? They were more professional than the players in the NHL at the time, who were banned by the IOC, at that time, from playing in the Olympics for their home countries.

I watch the Winter Olympics just hoping to see athletes perform amazing feats. I can't go and name all the names of these athletes in the past, the list would be far too long.

But I do know that I'll be up bright and early next Saturday morning to watch live the 20km cross country skiing race.

God love those athletes that even qualified for that event, I'm lucky I can walk 1km, let alone cross-country ski for 20.

[KT2000]

15. He was a breath of fresh air

the drama of the Olympics was interrupted for some fun and laughs. He was great!

[BrotherBuzz]

16. The grooming crew routinely jumped farther then Eddie

That's a fact!

:rofl:

[Blue_Tires]

17. i remember him well...

[lildreamer316]

19. OMFG

I loved him. So cool. Thanks......

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

20. He was a national hero / laughing stock

He even released a single!