Budapest to host Summer Youth Olympic Games?

According to insidethegames, the Hungarian capital city is among the cities that are considered as potential hosts for the next Summer Youth Olympic Games. Budapest is already in contact with the International Olympic Committee.

According to the current plans, the Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) is scheduled to take place in 2023. However, there is still a possibility for bringing the event forward, to 2021.

Budapest campaigned for hosting the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, but it seemed that almost no-one was interested in the matter, as, after a poor reception on the side of the public and the political parties, the city withdrew in February. Still, Budapest is still eager to host major events like that, so this could contribute to the success of the FINA World Aquatics Championship.

The organising officials of Budapest and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are already discussing the topic.

It was confirmed by the executive director for the Olympic Games, Christophe Dubi, that the IOC is in talks with several cities.

Regarding Budapest, Dubi said that the organising team presented very creative ideas and they were good at technicalities too. Dubi goes even further, stating that

Budapest is not only a good candidate for the YOG, but also for hosting even the Olympics.

However, the role of hosting the YOG usually goes to cities not be suitable for bigger events.

Next year’s Summer Olympic Games will take place in Buenos Aires. Previously, Singapore (2010) and Nanjing (2014) were hosts. In 2015, due to a possible clash with the Winter Olympic Games, the next edition was postponed until 2023, but there are chances that the Summer Olympic Games will take place two years earlier.

Dubi commented on the matter of scheduling, saying that the IOC decided to push back the Summer Games to 2023, but there are discussions again about the dates, arguing why 2023 is not an ideal date for the Summer Games. In reality, there are a number of National Olympic Committees and International Federations events each year. Still, the IOC plans to stick with 2023. If there is a need to re-open the discussion officially, it could happen Pyeongchang (the next session in February), the earliest.

Several people and stakeholders are arguing in favor of 2021 instead or 2022, so the IOC has to validate 2023 or re-open discussions on the matter. For this, however, they need to have a complete picture of the situation.

Budapest hosted several major events in 2017, like the FINA World Aquatics Championship and the International Judo Federation World Championships, and all those have been quite successful.

The capital city is keen on becoming the host of the 2023 International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships. Eventually, after a meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Budapest’s Mayor István Tarlós and the Hungarian Olympic Committee, Budapest withdrew their bid for 2024 in February. The Momentum Movement represented a strong opposition. They’ve collected over 250 thousand signatures and presented them to the Budapest Election Committee, asking for a referendum on the topic.

Photo: MTI

Ce: bm

Source: insidethegames.biz