Eddie the Eagle and His Fight Against the Forces of Nature _1_on grade ms

The air is crisp this winter morning as Eddie looks up at the mountains that surround Calgary. It is there he will do battle with some of the world’s best athletes. Today is his final event in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games, an event only held once every four year. His nerves are controlled only by his sheer determination to be an Olympian. Eddie has no delusion of actually winning a medal today; he just wants to do his best.


He wants to honor his home country of Great Britain as the only member of this country’s ski jump team. Hours later, the lonely figure of a skier enters the start house atop the snow-covered mountain. He wipes down his skies one last time as a ritual and then places the skis on the ground and steps into the bindings. With goggles and poles checked, he readies for the start buzzer. At the sound of the buzzer, the skier pushes off hard from the gate. The crowds cheering him on cannot help him now as all that matters now is his battle with the forces of nature.

For a ski jumper, it’s all about understanding forces. Once the skier pushes off and starts his descent, every movement is critical. The goal is to reach the bottom of the ramp with as much velocity as possible. At the end of the ramp, the skier will launch himself skyward, but his work is not done. Once in flight, one force is no longer at play, but others are still very much in play. The fate of the skier rests on his ability to control those forces.

While at the start gate, all forces are balanced. How do we know? Simple! The skier has not yet started to move and changes in motion are caused by unbalanced forces. The balanced forces the skier is experiencing will all end soon as the timer counts down: 3… 2… 1… Start! The skier lunges forward and starts his descent down the specially constructed takeoff ramp known as an ‘inrun’. You might think it is all up to gravity, but you would be wrong.