PHOTO GALLERY: festival-like Olympic Qualifier Series in Budapest’s downtown – UPDATED
Ludovika Campus in Budapest hosting Olympic Qualifier Series
Balázs Fürjes, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), delivered a presentation sharing Hungary’s experience organising urban sports contests at the Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest on Saturday. Over the weekend, the Ludovika campus is hosting the inaugural Olympic Qualifier Series, where athletes in BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding and sport climbing can secure a spot at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Fürjes noted that Hungary had hosted the World Urban Games five years earlier and showcased the event in a short film.
Earlier, Pierre Fratter-Bardy, the IOC’s associate director for strategy and development, said fans were following the contest at the Ludovika campus with “great enthusiasm”, with a younger crowd matching the spirit shown by older fans when Budapest hosted the World Athletics Championships in 2023.
Fürjes said that backing for urban sports needed to be strengthened, while preserving Hungary’s success in sports in which the country traditionally excelled. He added that Hungarians competing at the qualifiers had an “enormous opportunity”, both in Budapest and in Shanghai, which hosted the first stop of the Olympic Qualifier Series.
Foreign minister Szijjártó: Hungary playing key part in renewal of intl Olympic movement
Hungary is playing a key part in renewing the international Olympic movement as a host, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Budapest on Friday, noting that Hungary, alongside Shanghai, is hosting the inaugural Olympic Qualifier Series for this year’s Paris Games.
After meeting leaders of the International Olympic Committee as well as six Olympic champions, the minister said qualifiers are being held in Budapest at the weekend for the Paris Olympics in urban sports such as break dance, BMX, sport climbing and skateboarding.
“The international Olympic movement is facing new challenges as media consumption habits as well the related sponsorship and advertising activities have changed, and the Olympic movement must respond to the digital and media challenges of the times,” Szijjártó was quoted as saying by the ministry. Integrating modern urban sports into the Olympic Games was part of this response, he added.
Szijjártó said it was a great honour for Hungary to play a key role in the renewal of the Olympic movement by hosting the competitions of the qualifier series in addition to Shanghai.
“Hungary had a great dream, to host the Olympics Games… For a country that has already hosted European and world championships in sports ranging from athletics through swimming and water polo to modern pentathlon, handball or basketball, I think it is justified to keep this dream alive,” Szijjártó said, adding that all participants, including athletes and sports leaders, had been highly satisfied with Hungary’s organisation of events.
UPDATE 1: Olympic Qualifier Series is ‘global success’
Balázs Fürjes, a Hungarian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), called the inaugural Olympic Qualifier Series hosted at Budapest’s Ludovika campus a “global success” on Sunday.
Fürjes told MTI that over 60,000 people had visited campus to see athletes in BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding and sport climbing vie for a spot at the Olympic Games in Paris during the four-day contest. On Sunday, the last day of the qualifier, the campus crowd reached capacity and fans who arrived mid-afternoon had to wait for people to leave before being let in, he added.
The event is being broadcast on television in close to 100 countries and over 200 foreign journalists are covering the competition.
UPDATE 2: Urban sports qualifier appeals to new age groups
The Budapest stop of the inaugural Olympic Qualifier Series for urban sports has appealed to new age groups who showed little interest in the Games until now, Zsolt Gyulay, the president of the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB), said at the Ludovika campus on Sunday. The Ludovika campus is hosting the contest, on June 20-23, where athletes in BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding and sport climbing can secure a spot at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Gyulay said one of the most important results of the four-day qualifier, which wound up on International Olympic Day, was the chance to reach age groups that didn’t follow the Olympic Games. “That might seem strange to people who follow traditional sports, but if we look at sport climbing which has been included on the Olympic programme in a period of under four years, then these sports will soon come into their own,” he added. Hungary was the second stop in the Olympic Qualifier Series after Shanghai. Four Hungarians competed, but none made the cut for the Paris Games.
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