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Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards backs schoolboy skiing ace for future Winter Olympic glory
Story and video from SWNS
Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards has backed schoolboy skiing ace George Brown in his bid for future Winter Olympic glory.
The 13-year-old is the country's top under-14 ski-racer who also competes on indoor dry slopes and slalom races across Europe.
George and his dad Stuart, 46, have turned the garden of their home in Moseley, Birmingham, into a mini snow slope complete with jump off the back steps.
His dedication to skiing has been noticed by legendary ski-jumper Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards who is throwing his weight behind the youngster.
Eddie was the first competitor in 60 years to represent Britain in Olympic ski-jumping in the 1988 Winter Olympics.
He finished last out of 73 jumpers but he made headlines around the world with his wide-grin and comically large glasses.
His story was even made into the movie Eddie the Eagle in 2016, with Taron Egerton in the title role and Hugh Jackman as Edwards' coach.
Eddie, 57, said: "With ski slopes closed and no travelling to Europe allowed at the moment, British skiers are a bit stuck.
"When I was in similar circumstances, I simply did whatever I could to continue training, kept on physical training, lots of flexibility work and even took slalom courses up in a sloping field and ran through them as if I was skiing.
"It's important to have that 'never give up' attitude, but if you have such a love and passion for the sport you'll do anything in order to carry on doing it."
Proud dad Stuart added: "George's skiing heroes are the likes of GB number one Dave Ryding, retired world number one Marcel Hirscher and American number one Mikaela Shiffrin.
"George has always been inspired by what Eddie achieved as a ski-jumper and hopes one day to achieve great things as an Alpine ski-racer.
"He will have a look of complete shock on his face when I tell him one of his idols now knows about him.
"Eddie came to Swadlincote ski slope when they relaid the matting three years ago but George wasn't able to meet him because he was in the middle of an intense gymnastics training programme.
"He was gutted to miss him then - but now he'll be chuffed to hear this. I'm sure it'll spur him on to train even harder."
