Budapest hopes Hungary’s Rio success can boost 2024 Olympic bid

Hungary’s Olympic athletes received a warm welcome upon their return to Budapest from Rio: with eight gold medals and 15 overall the country finished 12th in the medals table. Those behind the city’s bid to host the 2024 Games hope the success can boost its chances. Other positive factors could be that Central Europe has never had the Olympics, and that the IOC is looking for a sustainable, relatively inexpensive venue. “Part of the debate can be what it means in terms of development or what the rate of costs to income would look like, but I am sure that an event like this would definitely strengthen our national pride, unity and bring people together,” Zsolt Borkai, President of the Hungarian Olympic Committee told Euronews. #HUN Olympians are arriving to #Budapest  pic.twitter.com/eP5tYptZQE— Budapest 2024 (@GoBudapest2024) August 24, 2016 But opinion is divided in the Hungarian capital. A campaign group has been set up opposing the Budapest bid. “Olympics? No” believes the project would be far too expensive. “This would have a cost – not only for Budapest but for the whole country – which is totally unacceptable. Those few thousand billion forints, which would be the price of it – could be spent on much better aims,” said the movement’s co-founder András Dancs. The other potential rivals to Budapest for the 2024 Olympics are Los Angeles, Rome and Paris. “This sports hall where the Olympic Champions were welcomed home with celebrations could be a venue of the Olympic Games one day. The decision wontt be known for sure until it’s taken by the International Olympic Committee in September 2017, just over one year from now,” Euronews correspondent Andrea Hajagos reported from Budapest.