Official: Budapest Olympic bid would have been ‘hopeless’ without ‘full unity’

Budapest, February 23 (MTI) – Budapest’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics would only have had a chance against those of its “strong, and moreover, unified” rivals if Hungary had been “fully unified” behind it, the government commissioner in charge of the bid said on Thursday.

The prime minister’s cabinet office announced on Wednesday that it had passed a resolution proposing that the City of Budapest and the Hungarian Olympic Committee should withdraw Budapest’s Olympic bid.

“Over the coming weeks we would have been locked in a race with two internationally powerful and fully unified cities,” Balázs Fürjes told MTI. He said Hungary would have faced an uphill battle but could still have “come out of left field to take an upset victory” if it had been unified behind the bid.

Fürjes said that unlike Hungary, the remaining candidates, Paris and Los Angeles, were “completely unified” behind their own Olympic bids.