Hungarian-developed Teqball to become Olympic sport soon?! – PHOTOS
Teqball, a Hungarian-developed sport that aspires to become an Olympic sport, already has 138 national associations.
Goals
As HellóMagyar reported, Gergely Murányi, the Head of Diplomatic Relations of the International Teqball Federation (Fédération Internationale de Teqball, FITEQ), and Dániel Gyurta, a member of the International Olympic Committee, spoke about this on the M1 news channel.
Gergely Murányi stressed that the organisation of the World Championships was an important milestone on the road to the Olympic programme, especially in view of the increasingly crowded field.
“At the first World Championships in Budapest, 20 countries took part, and when it came back again, 68 countries took part, which shows the exponential growth in the number of athletes. In any case, the important thing for us is to reach the Olympics,”
said Murányi.
Rising popularity
He said that the recognition by the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), without which no sport could be included in the Olympic programme, was an important milestone (at the organisation’s general assembly, the Olympic and non-Olympic international sports federations voted in favour of full membership of FITEQ). He stressed that “the Olympic programme will include those sports that have the potential to become mass sports”.
“Currently, there are nearly 10,000 certified players worldwide and 138 national federations. There is still room for improvement, but the fact that the number of national federations has already grown to over 100 is a testament to the strength of teqball,” said Murányi.
Popularity abroad
Dániel Gyurta stressed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is an important element in promoting the sport internationally. He highlighted the role of Minister Péter Szijjártó, who has donated teqball tables to his hosts on several occasions during his foreign trips.
He added that foreign hosts always mention their Hungarian-related memories, such as Ferenc Puskás, Krisztián Egerszegi or the Rubik’s Cube, but teqball is also increasingly being mentioned as a kind of hungarikum/Hungarian heritage.
“From the very first moment, the way of thinking, the kind of objective to spread the sport as widely as possible and to bring it to as many people as possible, that’s one of the main goals of my work with teqball,”
said Gyurta.
Most committed international sports federation
He added that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is of the opinion that FITEQ is the “most committed international sports federation” and that Lausanne (headquarters of the IOC) also sees and recognises the strength of the sport and the progress it has made in recent years.
The Hungarian innovation was officially presented in Budapest in 2014. The first World Championships were held in the Hungarian capital in 2017, followed by Reims in France a year later, and Budapest hosted the World Championships again in 2019.
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Source: HellóMagyar
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