Olympic parade: Two blaggers talk their way onto Rio 2016 float before being caught out by reporter

Great Britain's Olympic and Paralympic athletes were joined by two unfamiliar faces in Monday's celebratory parade through Manchester

Jack de Menezes
Tuesday 18 October 2016 09:38 BST
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Great Britain's Rio Olympics and Paralympics athletes celebrated their success on the streets of Manchester
Great Britain's Rio Olympics and Paralympics athletes celebrated their success on the streets of Manchester (Getty)

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The Olympic parade through the streets of Manchester was crashed by two blaggers who manager to talk their way onto one of the floats carrying Great Britain’s triumphant athletes from Rio 2016.

Team GB and ParalympicGB rode through the streets of Manchester to celebrate Britain’s phenomenal success at the Rio Olympic Games this summer, with the likes of Jessica Ennis-Hill, Max Whitlock and Dame Sarah Storey leading the way following their success in Brazil.

Over 150,000 people braved the elements on Monday afternoon to herald the athletes as they were carried through the streets, with gold medal winners being afforded the luxury of golden cars with the rest of the team on large flatbed trucks.

However, one eagle-eyed reporter spotted two rather unfamiliar faces, and quickly dived in for an interview to get to the bottom of the confusing matter.

Sky News sports correspondent Paul Kelso managed to interview the pair live, where they made a pretty terrible attempt to disguise the fact that they did not compete in the Olympics at all.

Watch the video below...

One of the blaggers chanted “Olympics! Olympics! Love it!” as he danced aboard a float carrying Britain’s gold medal0winning women’s hockey team, before Kelso swooped in to ask what did they win.

“So that was the Olympics…er, sorry the fencing in the Olympics,” came the rather unconvincing reply.

Team GB Return Home Following Golden Rio Olympics

“Was it a blagging Olympics?” Kelso responds, appearing to hit the nail on the head.

“Oh a bit of one, a bit of one, yeah. We just kind of bought the kit.”

Kelso pushes further. “Show us your medals.”

The unnamed man holds up his DIY gold medal, adding: “So we got the medal and just thought, you know, ‘We’ll give it a go’. We actually got ushered on, it was actually completely against out will.”

Over 150,000 people took to the street to celebrate Britain's Olympic and Paralympic athletes
Over 150,000 people took to the street to celebrate Britain's Olympic and Paralympic athletes (Getty)

Kelso cuts him off, and says: “So you’re a couple of blaggers aren’t you?”

“Absolutely, we blag something every now and then. We’ve got to get off at the next stop to be honest.”

Given the remarkable lapse in security in allowing two non-Olympians onto the float, there will be raised fears when the parade takes place on Tuesday in London, given that that day includes a meeting with The Queen.

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