Team GB’s Andy Macdonald – The Eddie the Eagle of skateboarding – reminds grandads such as me that age really is just a number, writes DAVID JONES

Would he skate into the arena on his board or be wheeled into a wheelchair, sitting in a bath chair? If he went downstairs with the kids, would he ever be able to get up again?

Well, if he fell and broke an arthritic bone attempting a somersault, at least he’d be in the right place – he could have it set in a cast.

As we waited for Team GB’s Andy Macdonald, at 51 the oldest person ever to compete in Olympic skateboarding (a sport normally associated with teenagers wearing backwards baseball caps), to enter, the jokes were flying.

And at the end of the competition, when the French public took the so-called Rad Dad to their hearts, booed the judges when they gave him a low score and cheered when he said goodbye with a lap of honour, the new Eddie the Eagle was born.

It is perhaps unfair to compare him with Eddie, the amateur ski jumper from Gloucestershire, whose comic ineptitude at the 1988 Winter Olympics made his name synonymous with glorious British failure.

In a career that spanned more than three decades, Macdonald’s street credibility grew as he won a string of matches

Andy Macdonald gets some tips from Tony Hawk

The 51-year-old skateboarding veteran’s performance resembled that of the brave but inexperienced Eddie the Eagle

After all, old Macdonald was once a great practitioner of his craft.

In a career that spanned more than three decades, his street credibility grew as he won a series of competitions and even performed a skateboarding demonstration at the White House.

But time has clearly taken its toll and his improbable intervention at the Games yesterday brought to mind the brave but inexperienced Eddie.

You didn’t have to look at his birth date on the entry form – 1973 – to see that he was competing against skateboarders younger than his 18-year-old son who was watching.

Just compare his middle-aged build with that of his rivals, whose T-shirts hung over their lithe bodies.

And from Macdonald’s first flip it was painfully obvious that the springs in his knees were getting rusty. He just couldn’t jump as high as the others.

He first fell during training. A more serious crash came on the first of his three competition runs, after which he was inevitably eliminated.

Still, you had to take your hat off to him for his courage. And unlike Eddie, he wasn’t miles behind the rest, but finished 18th out of 22 competitors.

He was still beaming with joy as he spoke to the waiting journalists – so numerous you would have thought he had won the gold medal.

I asked him if he thought the judges had discriminated against him on the basis of age.

No, he replied gently, he had heard the crowd boo when his low scores came in, but skateboarding was more of an art form than a sport and judging was subjective. “I thought, this is fun no matter how old you are,” he grinned.

“This is the coolest, most fun, most inclusive thing you can do. It’s like the fountain of youth! I’ve been doing it since I was 12, and I’m 51 and still loving it.”

Although he represents Britain, Macdonald has an American accent and lives in California, where his ties to the country are tenuous.

His father, Roderick, who emigrated to the US, was born in Luton and also has Scottish ancestry. Oh, and he recently discovered a third cousin in Kent.

Before the pandemic, he earned his living as a skateboarder, but when Covid hit, events were suspended and his sponsorship deals ended, and his search for Paris began.

You have to take your hat off to him as he managed to finish 18th out of 22 participants

Although he represents Great Britain, Macdonald has an American accent and lives in California

Macdonald switched international allegiance to Team GB in 2022, following the sport’s launch at the 2021 Olympics

With no chance of qualifying for the American team, he applied for a British passport through his father’s nationality. However, he only achieved the required result in a competition in Budapest in June.

When he told the news to his wife Rebecca, who once lived in Paris and whom he had promised to bring back, she was elated. He had loved every minute of the Olympics, but as a sloppy skateboarder he was surprised when he was given the team’s suit and asked why he needed one.

“Just in case the King invites you to tea,” he was told. “And I said, ‘Oh! Good idea!’

Before he left, I asked if we would see him in Los Angeles in four years. “Do they need 59-year-olds at the Olympics?” he laughed, getting his math wrong. Well, no, probably not.

But one beautiful day, the Eddie the Eagle of skateboarding reminded my grandfathers that age is just a number.