Winter Olympics: British youngsters dream of flying where Eddie The Eagle once soared

Since the infamous flight of Michael ‘Eddie the Eagle’ Edwards in 1988, little is seen or heard of the sport. Three young British athletes are hoping to put the sport back on the map – from their base in North America. 

Sam Bolton, at 15 years old, is the youngest in the squad. His family moved from Halifax to Calgary in 2008, following a job offer that parents Sian and Guy could not refuse. Identical twins Robert and Jake Lock were born in the same city to British parents Richard and Joanna. Richard’s work in diamond mining took them to Canada in 1995, where daughter Hayley was born in 1996, and the boys a year later.

“The sibling rivalry is very strong,” says Jake. “It’s definitely more intense than between the other [US] teammates - in every competition, when one beats the other we rub it in a little more.”

Ski jumping involves hurling down a ramp in order to fly as far as possible, aiming for a line drawn in the landing area, known as the ‘K-point’. Jumps are judged for distance and style.

The Locks grew up on the FIS Cup circuit, the third level of international ski competition run by the International Ski Federation. Points are distributed across the top 30, with first place taking 100 and 30th taking one. These are accumulated and used to calculate world rankings. To progress to Continental Cups and then World Cups, athletes must place in the top 30. After that, it’s the Winter Olympics. 

This is the path to Beijing 2022.

The brothers are pretty evenly matched; at last year’s Continental Cup in Chaikovsky, Russia, Robert and Jake came 39th and 40th respectively.

“Athletes who do qualify for the Olympics have a larger dedication to really excel,” Robert says. “That’s something I have to match.”

“Beijing is the end game,” adds Jake.

Olympic qualification is even more difficult since the ‘Eddie the Eagle’ rule was introduced in 1990. Edwards finished last in both the 70 and 90-metre events at the Calgary Games in 1988, with two poor jumps earning 69.2 points; his nearest competitor managed 140.4. He won favour with a sympathetic global audience and he became a media favourite. 

Nevertheless, his performance embarrassed some in the higher echelons of skiing circles, leading to the International Olympic Committee ruling that hopefuls must be among the top 30% or top 50 international competitors to be considered. The IOC rule made it nearly impossible for history to repeat itself, and Eddie never qualified for an Olympics again.

“I’d like to think that I’m better than Eddie now,” says Jake. “Hopefully he doesn’t come after me for that!

“The problem is that you’re never going to be able to leave him out of it, but it’s something that my brother and I have embraced. It becomes a bit of a joke sometimes.”

Robert agrees. “He laid the groundwork for the notoriety of British ski jumpers, but he said he was going to the Olympics and he did.

“I don’t mind the comparison, it motivates me to show people that I’m capable to compete successfully. My goal is to get away from the image he set.

“Just because you’re from a country that doesn’t traditionally ski jump doesn’t mean you’ll be bad.”

Don’t miss a moment of the Olympic Winter Games on Eurosport, the Eurosport App (available on IOS, Android and Windows devices), and online at www.eurosport.co.uk/olympics

The more prevalent comparison is, inevitably, to each other. Neither brother can pinpoint obvious differences between them. All Jake can muster is that Robert wears shorts all year round, whereas he prefers jeans; their music taste is similar, but with different bands favoured.

While they spend every minute of training and competitions together, their college lives are 600 miles apart: both study engineering, Robert in Utah and Jake in New Mexico. They speak occasionally, sending the odd message or Snapchat.

“We’re fine with not talking. Once we see each other again we pick up where we left off,” says Jake. “It’s definitely nice to be a completely separate person and not lumped together as the twins from Great Britain.”

The brothers train regularly with the US squad, who Sam joins regularly from Calgary’s National Sports School. 

“It’s great to see that there’s someone else younger out there,” says Jake. “Even without funding I think the three of us all have a chance to go to the Olympics.”

Sam was a talented ice hockey player before he started jumping, but a single afternoon on the slopes when he was eight changed his mind. 

“He came home and said, ‘I want to be a ski jumper,’” his mother Sian recalls. “His dad, Guy, said, ‘No, no, you’re a hockey player.

“Sam told him, ‘No I’m not. I’m a ski jumper.’  And that was that.”

Not only does Sam love ski jumping, but the sport has enabled him to travel, with multiple training trips to Europe giving him a maturity beyond his years.

“It’s something that a lot of the parents notice when their kids start ski jumping,” says Sian. 

“Everyone is surprised at how comfortable the older athletes are, including Sam, when they’re talking to adults. It’s how self-confident they appear. I think it’s because from quite a young age, they’re travelling with just their coach.”

‘Militant’ coach Tadeusz Bafia has planned Sam’s road-map to Beijing. This year, they will make three training trips across the Atlantic before a partial relocation to Europe in 2019.

With one eye on a permanent relocation in the near future, the prospect of learning new European languages has Sam feeling optimistic.

“It is far better than constantly being in a state of limbo where the concept of home doesn’t exist,” he says.

Though he no longer has his Yorkshire accent, Sam is proud of the fact he is competing for Great Britain. These days, he feels more Canadian than British, an inevitable consequence of being uprooted so young, but he wears a toque – a bobble hat – emblazoned with a Union Jack all the time. Bought from British store Tog 24, he even sent a couple down to Robert and Jake to represent GB in typically low-key fashion.

For the boys’ parents, the strife of supporting their Olympic dreams has been worth it.

“We’re battling out here on our own, waving the flag,” says Joanna Lock. “It’s been good for British ski jumping. It’s not such a novelty anymore.”

Sam’s mother Sian met Eddie the Eagle last year, and said he was one of the nicest people she’d ever come across.

“Yeah, what he did was a bit of joke,” she says. “But they wouldn’t know about British ski jumping if he hadn’t done what he did.

“For us, no publicity is bad publicity.”

Don’t miss a moment of the Olympic Winter Games on Eurosport, the Eurosport App (available on IOS, Android and Windows devices), and online at www.eurosport.co.uk/olympics