Two impostors managed to sneak on to a float for Olympic athletes during the official Rio 2016 “heroes parade” in Manchester, the British Olympic Association has confirmed.
The two men initially told a TV journalist that they were in the Team GB fencing team before they admitted they had blagged their way on to the parade buses, which was carrying the women’s hockey team and modern pentathlon athletes.
“We got the medals and we just thought, you know, we’d give it a go,” said one of the men, who were wearing fake Team GB tracksuits and plastic gold medals on Monday. “We actually got ushered on, it was actually completely against our will. We blag something every now and then but we’re going to get off at the next stop to be honest.”
In a statement the British Olympic Association said: “We are aware of the matter and are disappointed anyone would want to detract from the athletes’ celebration.” It added: “It didn’t spoil anyone’s enjoyment of a wonderful event.”
Officials and members of the media required accreditation in advance to ride on the floats, but the two men, who have not yet been identified, managed to slip past security personnel and the police.
More than 150,000 people braved torrential rain to see the procession through Manchester city centre. A second celebration is to be held in London’s Trafalgar Square on Tuesday.
Team GB won 67 medals at the Rio Games, two more than the record haul from London 2012. The UK’s Paralympians won 147 medals at Rio, 27 more than four years ago.
