Three Eddie Lincoln Stories

Three Eddie Lincoln Stories
Remembering a skiing legend

Heros
By: Chris Anthony


We need our heroes, our mentors, our role models. They give us guidance directly or perhaps indirectly just by their action of coolness. Every kid and even some adults still have those that they aspire to be like. It helps us build our own character thus contribute in our own way during this short life.

They say that you are not really supposed to meet your heroes. After all, they are just human and we have built them up to be so much more in our heads. It is difficult to live up to the standard. But still they have done something that sets them apart during a period of time. Most likely they would standout no matter when they were born. They just have that slightly different thing…

Eddie Lincoln was that for me as a kid. He was cool, good looking, wore different clothes, had a great voice and did things that embedded into my mind and never went away. If the X Games took place back then, he would have been on the highlight reel and had his name in the ads. But for me, he was more than that. He was also my coach.

Eddie’s image and actions have stayed with me. Like when he did a front flip over a car in the parking lot at Copper Mountain. It was amazing! I wanted to be that guy! He was a human cat that could be thrown in the air and land on his feet no matter how many times he twisted and flipped while controlling the laws of gravity. I remember one of the films, either Dick Barrymore or Warren Miller, playing one of his jumps in slow motion over and over and talking about what he had just done. Then playing it at regular speed and asking did you see it?

Lange once produced a shirt with Eddie wearing a bitchen one-piece blue outfit with a green strip down the side doing a front layout. I wore that shirt all the time, despite it being three sizes to big. I mean how often do you get to brag to your friends at school about one of your coaches being a T-Shirt? It definitely upped my coolness factor amongst my peers.

When Eddie would show up on the big screen, then be bouncing with me on a trampoline, it was amazing. It made me feel special. I still remember him teaching me how to flip on a tramp with skis on during freestyle camp in the Copper base lodge. I even remembered when he came up with what eventually became the Lincoln loop. This was the trick I was trying to do unsupervised one day when I landed in the springs. It scared the crap out of me and I never attempted it again, but made him that much more special to me.

Eddie passed away on January 19. He was 55, and leaves behind two children and his wife, Sharon. After working as a stunt coordinator on Hollywood movies, Lincoln eventually drifted away from the ski world, and spent his later years living in Lakewood, Colorado and working in construction sales.

It is sad that Eddie Lincoln was one of those skiing icons that sort of just disappeared. I’m not sure if he ever had a clue of the influence he ultimately had on our sport, or more importantly our young minds. Heroes are important and Eddie, he was one of those guys.