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Eddie the Eagle set back British Winter Sports by 20 Years

 Poster: A snowHead
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Can't beleive what i have heard this morning on BBC 5 Live. Reporter claimed that our current poor medal prospects are down to Eddie the Eagle embarrassing us with his poor performances at Ski jumping.

Richard Caborn ( Sports Minister ) also say's that he will not accept any Eddie the Eagle performances.

The rest of the BBC morning program seemed to do nothing but critise the whole British Team and the event in general.

All I can say is if it wasn't for Eddie the Eagle I may never have got into winter sports. It wasn't about performance it was about his own desire to acheive a personal goal and with no funding what so ever.
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Super Eagle wrote:
Reporter claimed that our current poor medal prospects are down to Eddie the Eagle embarrassing us with his poor performances at Ski jumping.


EAsy to say if you've never thrown yourself off an Olympic ski jump. Personally I think Eddie must have had a lot of guts to do it.
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I also get annoyed when people do the sport of Skeleton an injustice when they make constant referance to them using Tea Trays. This sport along with Luge are just as scientific in thier preperation as is the Bobsleigh.

Most of the reporters for BBC 5 Live are not even Winter Sports fans and it appears that we are using ex summer sports athletes with no winter sports experience as commentators.

I have to say there appears to be a little bit of contempt for these games by certain fractions of the BBC.
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Given that the system that the geoverment uses to supposedly provide support for sportsmen and women seems to be a complete shambles, what's new.

Eddie the Eagle simply taking part in the ski jumping events ment that the BBC actually gave them coverage which may well have caused some people to become interested in snowsports. too much emphasis is placed on getting medals by our government, none of the ministers seem to have realised that in order to get a medal you first have to be in the competition which means years of training day in day out, top skiers for example are some of the fittest people on the planet, we can joke about people like Finlay and say he doesn't stand a chance but having been in Wengen when he came in in 10th place I can tell you that a lot of the locals were very impressed, to make it into the top 10 requires true skill and stamina.

Rant over Embarassed
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I've met Eddie one time in my life, at the Tamworth Snowdone. Seemed a perfectly charming character. He was then busy opening German supermarkets, as well as teaching kids skiing at the Dome.

He ended up with a big beef about the way he was treated by the Ski Fed, after the 1988 Winter Olympics, but this seemed slightly self-centred.

He had his 15 minutes of glory, and turned it into 30 years of fame - which can't be bad!

He turned to studying law, but don't know if he qualified. Saw a report that he was back in the building trade, hopefully not jumping off scaffolding.

Eddie shouldn't be a scapegoat for anything, in my view.
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Even though Alain Baxter hasn't been at the top of his sport for the last 4 years he as still managed to beat other sportsmen still at the top of their sport in the last 2 Sports Superstars events.

It would be interesting to see if Finley takes part in the next one.
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Super Eagle, what a load of nonesence, at least Eddie had the guts to throw himself off a ski-jump, something I'd never do especially after going to the top of the ski jump in Innsbruck. Eddie had a lot more to do with sport than a bunch of Scotish housewifes doing their housework on ice IMO.
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Hang on - those 'Scottish housewives' brought back our gold medal from Salt Lake City!!!
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David Goldsmith, Gold medal or not, IMO curling is no more a sport than snooker or darts.
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He's always had a thing against curlers
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David@traxvax - It's not me doing the knocking. I have every admeration for Eddie the Eagle.

As for our curler girls I hold the same admeration as at the top of their sport the precision required to land the stone in the correct position is something we couldn't do without years of practice.

that also goes for throwing a 180 at darts or scoring a 147 at snooker
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Super Eagle wrote:
...........Most of the reporters for BBC 5 Live are not even Winter Sports fans and it appears that we are using ex summer sports athletes with no winter sports experience as commentators..............


I was amazed to see Claire horsey woman was on the team for BBC TV. Great commentator on horse racing. Really knows her stuff. But snowsports?
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To be fair, Claire Balding was setting the scene of the Winter Olympics and Turin and not providing any ski journalism. Hazel Irvine is doing that, in conjunction with Graham Bell. Hazel Irvine is terrific, in my view.

If they have Matt Chilton commentating too - who I think is a solid professional - I think we'll get authoritative ski coverage for the Olympics. All three of these people can turn skis. [David Vine was famously allergic to planks]
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Super Eagle wrote:
David@traxvax - It's not me doing the knocking. I have every admeration for Eddie the Eagle.

As for our curler girls I hold the same admeration as at the top of their sport the precision required to land the stone in the correct position is something we couldn't do without years of practice.

that also goes for throwing a 180 at darts or scoring a 147 at snooker


You are absolutely right.

Of course darts is a sport. Archery is in the Olympics. No c*** fires bows and arrows anymore - but millions throw darts every week.

Snooker is extremely demanding and requires for more skill and thought than pistol shooting- another 'Olympic' sport. rolling eyes
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David Goldsmith wrote:
Hazel Irvine is terrific, in my view


David, I seem to remember you having a bit of a sof spot for Hazel :P
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I just think she's got a beautiful smile, a very cheerful nature, a nice sense of humour and can communicate intelligently. Her skiing isn't brilliant, but the Beeb is getting more confident of filming her - in fact, I could swear the slope she was on yesterday was a red.
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I did wonder what Colin Jackson was doing on the commentary team - he admitted it was his first winter olympics and he was honing up on his knowledge of winter sports. Although I have a lot of admiration for him, surely we have more seasoned winter sports athletes who could be commentators? I didn't see Graham Bell as part of the commentary team for the summer olympics.
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Presumably, the Beeb is trying to use Jackon's profile to make sure more people watch their coverage...
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Get the boy on skis. He's got to be capable of performing a couple of parallel turns without wiping out.
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Emma Carrick Anderson will be commentating on the Womens ski events for the BBC. It will be her first time and she said she was really looking forward too it.
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She still has a dot.com!
http://www.emmacarrickanderson.com
Not much there, though
Emma's listed on this BBC release detailing their commentary team for Turin.
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David Goldsmith wrote:
Get the boy [Colin Jackson] on skis. He's got to be capable of performing a couple of parallel turns without wiping out.


He's actually skiied quite a bit since retiring from International Athletics - one of his favourite resorts is Zermatt. He can be seen on BBC1 this monday at 7.00PM on Holiday skiing in Sestriere - how appropriate Cool
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David Goldsmith wrote:
She still has a dot.com!
http://www.emmacarrickanderson.com
Not much there, though
Emma's listed on this BBC release detailing their commentary team for Turin.

She is doing a lot of coaching with husband Phil Smith at Snoworks ski school, and was teaching on the course I did in Tignes last November. Glad that she's also getting a bit of a media profile with the Beeb - hope it goes well for her.
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Wot aload of Crap. Eddie is a hero
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David Goldsmith, I'll teach him! he's lovely!!!
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Send the minister off the Holmenkollen. Some of these polititians are full of crap. Eddie did more for the British Wintersport programme than most. Bloody polititians Evil or Very Mad
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I agree the funding issue for our winter sports guys is a problem.

If you are not winning then funding is withdrawn. However without proper funding how does someone acheive their goals.

I woundn't want to see the likes of golf and tennis where we have alot of good players but not the best still earning a good living from satelliye tours but I would not also want to see a promising 17 year old give on competing becuase he cannot afford to take the financial risks.
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You have to remember this is political. Its not the winning thats imortant, its the votes
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Quote:

David Goldsmith wrote:
Hazel Irvine is terrific, in my view

Give it a rest David. I would rather see http://www.sharrondavies.tv/ presenting, a real sportswoman who can ski, and no problem understanding the accent.


Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Tue 14-02-06 2:40; edited 1 time in total
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Vote for me and I will give everybody the winter off to go skiing.

Sod the cost. let the children of tomorrow pay for it.

60 % tax rate and a retirement age of 50.
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pistemeister, Sharron would be great. I can see a problem however.

Based on the Olympic swimming coverage I can see skiers wanting to nest their skis between her breasts, and hanging their poles............ Well you MUST remember.
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It's certainly true that the "Eddie factor" removed any small modicum of credibility the British Ski Team may have had abroad, making it even tougher for us to get access to good training facilities in foreign resorts. It was somewhat harmful, but "Putting the sport back by 20 years" is a bit of an exaggeration though. It's hard to say whether the increased interest amongst youngsters at home was enough to compensate for those negative effects.
After 1988, qualifying standards were brought into ski-jumping by the BOA. Eddie was not "victimised", merely being asked to adhere to the same standards that other sports already had. Rather than feeling hard-done-by, Eddie should probably be thankful that he was able to slip through the loophole at least once.
There was after 1988 a long discussion about standards, with the BOA's objective to select only competitors who could finish in the top half of their events. Qualifying criteria were toughened up in many sports.
Indirectly, Simon Bates probably has the "Eddie factor" to thank for the fact that he is not in Turin this week.
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I don't think Eddie ws clearing the table, so that was dangerous, however smaller obscure nations had skiers who were finishing 10 or so seconds over the winners' time in the DH, so should we (Britain) really expect our guys to be right up there? If they're qualified?? surely in freestyle they'd just be out in the early rounds, not on TV = no embarassment (unless our press made a fuss of course). I guess Lesley failed to qualify, but neither John nor Tim said anything about it last night.
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Martin Bell - I know you skied on the circuit at the same time as Eddie. It is also fair to say that at that time you and your brother also injected a little spice into the sport.

However is it fair to say that you and your brother had better financing from the BOA and British Ski Association whilst on the circuit.

I know Eddies performances were not brilliant and if say as in golf he had been taking a place in a competition which would otherwise have been allocated to another more promising youngster from a foreign team and thus denying someone a pay check, then I would have agreed with your comments. However why did not the Luge and Bobsleigh change their rules so as to stop the Jamacan team and Grandma luge taking part.

What about the guy from England skiing for Ghana and the guy from Canada skiing for Madagasca. Is this not what the olympics and its spirit all about or have we to make it only available to a select few.

If that is the case what would make the olympics special and not just another world cup event. ???.
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Super Eagle, The guy from England skiing for Ghana (the snow leopard) did not get his FIS points low enough to be able to compete at the olympics.
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There was a good feature on Working lunch yesterday. They had interviewed our Luge competitor and his parents. It was a really good interview talking about the cost to the family and the lack of financial support to them. He may of crashed out but he still made the grade to be there and has pawn shop balls for hurling himself feet first down that course. The only one out of any of the GB team that I would draw criticism of ( and I am not justfied in this either ) is the snowboarder ( name escapes me ) who managed to crash out on both runs. Surely what appeared to be slow speed errors should not occur like that?
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Quote:

The only one out of any of the GB team that I would draw criticism of ( and I am not justfied in this either ) is the snowboarder ( name escapes me ) who managed to crash out on both runs.


And all the excuses from the commentators came out of the woodwork i.e. injuries, olympics happening a month too soon etc. etc.

Leslie McKenna is the name you are looking for.
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Super Eagle wrote:

However is it fair to say that you and your brother had better financing from the BOA and British Ski Association whilst on the circuit.

Yes of course - governing body funding is decided on previous results. Alpine skiing currently gets more funding than, say, freestyle skiing, because Alpine skiing won a bronze medal in 2002. (After the CAS ruling, the BOA and the Sports Council recognised Baxter's performance for funding purposes.)
In principle I'm not against "colourful" competitors from "fringe" countries taking part in the Olympics - it certainly adds to the fun, as long as they're not putting themselves in too much danger. But I think that after 1988, the BOA decided that they didn't want Britain to be seen as one of those jokey "fringe" countries, possibly because they felt that it might jeopardise Britain's chances of hosting future Games.
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Quote:

possibly because they felt that it might jeopardise Britain's chances of hosting future Games.

Is Britain going after the 2014 Winter Games then? Laughing

Actually, thinking about it, with the current uncertainties over climate change, a little shift in the Gulf Stream might put 'The Inverness Games' in with a chance Confused
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admin, I think I see the point that you are trying to make: why can't Britain be a "jokey fringe nation" in the winter events, while still trying to be a serious contender for the summer Games? A reasonable opinion, but I don't know how many IOC delegates would feel that way...
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