Hamish and Andy banned for life from Olympic village
Despite being warned never to tell the story, Andy Lee has revealed why he and Hamish Blake are banned from the Olympic village.
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Andy Lee has revealed that he and Hamish Blake have been banned for life from entering the Olympic village.
The comedian said he’d been warned “not to talk about this ever”, but he threw caution to the wind during an interview with Triple M’s The Rush Hour With Leisel Jones, Liam & Dobbo on Tuesday afternoon.
Andy explained they copped the ban from the IOC (International Olympic Committee) after an incident during the London games in 2012.
“Hamish and I were given the honour of speaking to the (Australian) Olympians before it started,” Andy said.
“There’s a lot of applications and security you have to fill out to get into the Olympic village … and someone who filled out the forms put my birth date as that day’s date (in 2012).”
Despite the fact it was clearly a clerical error, the authorities refused to allow Andy to enter the village on the day of the speech.
Eventually, a quick-thinking Aussie came to his rescue.
“I won’t name who, but someone on the team said, ‘Hey, I can bring an outfit out. You look a little bit like one of the high jumpers,’” Andy recalled.
“Suddenly I went through on someone else’s (pass) and we snuck in, which was obviously a huge breach of security at a time when they were trying to prove that security was tight.”
Hamish and Andy delivered their speech and “had a ball” mingling with all the athletes.
But 90 minutes later, the Olympic security team realised they’d been tricked.
“They dragged us and put us in separate rooms and there was a lot of interrogation,” Andy told the Triple M hosts.
“We were … just tight-lipped, and then the head of security came in.”
In a lucky twist, the head of security turned out to be an Aussie fella.
“He went, ‘Hamish and Andy, what are you guys doing here?’ We explained, and he was more understanding,” the comedian said.
The Australian Olympic team was punished for Hamish and Andy’s actions, with some of their ‘visitor passes’ rescinded.
“That’s why I wasn’t really proud of what happened,” Andy said. “I hate the fact that some people missed out.”
The IOC also made it clear to the Aussie larrikins that they weren’t welcome back to the Olympic village … ever.
“We had to agree to be banned for life,” Andy said.
After hearing the hilarious story, Triple M’s Liam Flanagan suggested to Andy, “I think the campaign needs to start here. We need the ban lifted for Brisbane 2032!”
Andy joked, “or, (we could try) another sneak in … let’s double down!”
Originally published as Hamish and Andy banned for life from Olympic village
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