I STAYED in Canada for most of July because at the time of writing this column I am just about to take part in a stage show which is part of the Calgary Stampede, an annual 10-day rodeo.

The event can trace its roots back to 1886 but it now attracts more than one million people every year and claims to the ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’.

I am wondering what I have let myself in for as I am a bit out of my comfort zone appearing on stage in a show. I have to perform every night for a week and there’s also a few days of doing rehearsals. The organisers wanted me to fly out earlier, so I could start rehearsing as soon as possible but I had too much work on in the UK. They did send me video clips of some previous shows and they looked amazing and very professional. I do know that they want me to do some kind of ski jump on the stage – I’ll let you know how that went in my next column!

I have visited Calgary quite a few times before since I made a name for myself at the 1988 Winter Olympics, but I have never been to this destination in the summer, so this will be a new experience for me.

When I was younger I skied all the time during the summer at the Gloucester Ski Slope and in other dry slope competitions. I don’t go to the UK dry slopes as much as I used to because I am so busy with other things but I did manage a couple of hours skiing on snow on the glacier in Kaprun a couple of weeks ago when I did some filming for the Austrian National Tourist Office.

My daughters also don’t seem that keen on going dry slope skiing in the summer, although I am still trying to persuade them to go to one of the snow domes such as Tamworth or Milton Keynes.

Did you join in the excitement of the recent World Cup? It was definitely more open this year and I managed to watch some England World Cup games before I left for Calgary. I played football for my school team and even had trials at Cheltenham as a goalkeeper. This was my favourite position as I liked diving around. I really loved football in those days and was a huge Liverpool supporter. But that was in their hey day and I have to admit, although I follow them from afar, I couldn’t even tell you who half the players are now and I find football quite boring to watch these days.

I am still interested in the England games although I was surprised how excited some supporters were after just two World Cup matches. I think my local team, Forest Green Rovers, could have beaten Panama so England defeating them 6-1 was great, but nothing to write home about.

I had to give up football partly because of skiing. In my younger days I was always playing at school or with my mates down at the rec, but when I was trying to get on the British Ski Team I couldn’t risk getting injured.

History repeated itself after I became better known as ‘The Eagle’ after Calgary in 1988 as I was often invited to play in celebrity football matches for various charities and they were great fun. But I found myself getting injured a lot because when you get 22 males on a pitch with all that testosterone flying about, some of them get a little excited.

A couple of times I got elbowed in the face or hit in the nose and this threatened some of the TV and advertising filming work I was being offered which was worth quite a lot of money to me, so I couldn’t turn up with a black eye or a broken nose in front of the cameras.

In the end I had to give up football completely as I couldn’t take the risk anymore. I was picking up too many injuries – which is a little ironic as all the time I was throwing myself off ski jumps I rarely got injured.

* Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards is writing for the Skier & Snowboarder throughout the year. The column is being supported by skiweekends.com who are also making a donation to the charity Ski 4 Cancer – www.ski4cancer.org

You can read Eddie’s column in the magazine and every month on the Skier & Snowboarder website at: www.skierandsnowboarder.com

Categories: Skiing with Eddie