Now that the 2012 Summer Olympics are close, I am reminded of Eddie the Eagle.\u00a0 Eddie was the first athlete from Great Britain to perform in the Olympics as a ski jumper.\u00a0 Keep in mind that there are no\u00a0ski jump hills in Great Britain.\u00a0 Eddie was actually a pretty good downhill skier, but not good enough to compete in the Olympics.\u00a0 But then he saw guys from other countries competing in the ski jump and he had a brilliant idea.\u00a0 Since there were no other ski jumpers from Great Britain, if Eddie tried out for the team he would be a shoe in.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t actually have to be any good, he just had to be available.\u00a0\u00a0The next thing you know there is this\u00a0very ordinary guy, short on funds, even shorter on athletic ability, overweight, with poor eye sight jumping off ski jumps in the Olympics.\u00a0\u00a0The results were predictable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eddie was just plain awful as a ski jumper, but\u00a0you couldn\u2019t take your eyes off him.\u00a0 All these other athletes would fly gracefully through the air.\u00a0\u00a0Eddie always looked to be on the verge of disaster.\u00a0\u00a0With Eddie one was relieved when he survived the jump.\u00a0 No one expected him to win or even come close to winning, but he was fun to watch.\u00a0 Frankly it is a miracle he didn\u2019t get hurt.\u00a0 He finished dead last on both the 70 m and the 90m ski hills, but he also had a\u00a0world-wide fan club.\u00a0 The worse he performed the more people liked him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, the ski jumping community was embarrassed by the whole situation.\u00a0 The real ski jumpers though Eddie was making a mockery of their sport.\u00a0 Plus, they were concerned that someone else would try this and get seriously injured or even killed.\u00a0 So they changed to rules to make sure no more Eddies showed up at the Olympics.\u00a0 That is probably for the best, particularly with a sport as dangerous as ski jumping.<\/p>\n
Eddie is also a stark reminder\u00a0that sometimes a person gets elevated to a position for which they have no qualifications.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Not that this reminds me of anyone.<\/p>\n
TDM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Now that the 2012 Summer Olympics are close, I am reminded of Eddie the Eagle.\u00a0 Eddie was the first athlete from Great Britain to perform in the Olympics as a ski jumper.\u00a0 Keep in mind that there are no\u00a0ski jump … Continue reading