Hilarious reason why Hamish and Andy are "banned for life" from Olympic village
It's not easy to get banned from the Olympic village, but somehow Andy Lee and Hamish Blake have managed to do just that.
Despite being warned to “not to talk about this ever”, Andy threw caution to the wind during an interview with Triple M's The Rush Hour With Leisel Jones, Liam & Dobbo on Tuesday.
He explained that he and Hamish copped the ban from the International Olympic Committee after an incident during the 2012 London games.
“Hamish and I were given the honour of speaking to the (Australian) Olympians before it started,” Andy began.
“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," he continued.
Despite that fact that it was clearly an admin error, the authorities refused entry to the duo on the day of the speech.
Funnily enough, a quick-thinking Aussie came to the rescue and managed to sneak him in.
“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 mingled with all the athletes, but their little lie was called out 90 minutes later, when the security team realised they'd been tricked.
“They dragged us and put us in separate rooms and there was a lot of interrogation,” Andy said.
“We were … just tight-lipped, and then the head of security came in.”
In another stroke of luck, the head of security turned out to be an Aussie, who recognised the duo.
“He went, ‘Hamish and Andy, what are you guys doing here?’ We explained, and he was more understanding,” the comedian said.
However, because of their actions, the Australian Olympic team was also punished, with some of their visitor passes revoked.
“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 duo that they weren't welcome back to the village.
“We had to agree to be banned for life,” Andy recalled to the amusement of the Triple M hosts.
Liam Flanagan jokingly suggested to Andy: “I think the campaign needs to start here. We need the ban lifted for Brisbane 2032!”
To which he replied: “or, (we could try) another sneak in … let’s double down!”
Images: Instagram