[3] After a taste of skiing on a school trip aged 13, he developed his skills on dry slopes, then worked for a season at Glenshee in Scotland.

This performance qualified him as the sole British applicant for the 1988 Winter Olympics ski jumping competition.

He received confirmation of his qualification for the games while working as a plasterer and temporarily residing in a Finnish mental hospital, due to lack of funds for alternative accommodation rather than as a patient.

[11] At the closing ceremony, the president of the Organising Committee, Frank King, singled out Edwards for his contribution.

[13] Edwards failed to qualify for the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, or the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

He got a five-year sponsorship from Eagle Airlines, a small British charter company, to support his attempt to reach the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan, but failed to qualify for those as well.

[10] On 13 February 2008, Edwards made a return visit to Calgary to take part in festivities marking the twentieth anniversary of the Games.

[19] Edwards appeared in a number of advertising campaigns, e.g. on television, promoting cars, and commanded fees of £10,000 an hour.

[24] In January 2014, he commentated on the Channel 4 TV programme The Jump,[25] where 12 famous people took part in winter sports.

[28] A biopic chronicling the life story of Edwards had been planned by Irish director Declan Lowney since 2007.

Comedian Steve Coogan was originally chosen for the title role,[29] but in 2009 Lowney announced that Rupert Grint would instead play the part.

[30] In March 2015, it was announced that 20th Century Fox had acquired the film, with Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman starring and Dexter Fletcher directing, from a screenplay by Sean Macaulay and Simon Kelton.