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The Hungarian team already has 150 quotas, which could total nearly 200, said Zsolt Gyulay, President of the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB), at a press conference held on Wednesday, 100 days before the opening of the Paris Olympics.
Speaking at the event, the MOB’s president began his speech by saying that the Olympic flame was lit in Olympia on Tuesday, and he joined Thomas Bach, who at the ceremony in Greece, called the flame a symbol of hope in these war-torn times. He added that MOB staff will arrive in the Olympic village on July 12 to prepare the MOB office and will do their best to help Hungarian athletes as much as possible.
As for the Hungarian team, Mr. Gyulay congratulated the athletes who had recently qualified, while highlighting the success of the men and women’s handball teams, stressing that their presence strengthened the team spirit within the whole delegation.
We are very happy with the quota results of the last period. We are already at 150 quotas, which is beginning to exceed our wildest dreams,”
he noted, adding that there are still many qualifying tournaments to go and it looks like they will be close to 200.
Ádám Schmidt, State Secretary for Sport, first congratulated the women’s handball team on winning the quota in Debrecen (eastern Hungary) on Sunday. He highlighted that the priority of the Hungarian sports administration was to organize Olympic qualification events in as many sports as possible in Hungary this spring, so that Hungarian athletes could compete for quotas on home soil. “The performance of our handball teams proves that this was a successful initiative. This year, we can also look forward to qualification competitions in pentathlon, kayak canoeing, rowing, and rhythmic gymnastics, among others.”
Moreover, this summer, Budapest will be one of the venues for the OQS, an Olympic Qualifier Series combining sport and urban culture. In BMX, breakdancing, skateboarding, and sport climbing, at least half of the quotas in Paris will be allocated through the two-stage qualifying event,” he explained.
Balázs Fürjes, a Hungarian member of the International Olympic Committee, said that the Paris Games would also be special in that they would be back in front of the public after two Olympics (the Tokyo Summer and Beijing Winter Olympics) without spectators due to the COVID pandemic.
Eight million of the 10 million tickets have already been sold, he underlined, and while many tickets are extremely expensive, half of them are under EUR 50 and affordable tickets are available for all sports.
The organizing committee for the Olympic Games in Paris put another 250,000 tickets on sale from 10 a.m. on Wednesday. Half of the tickets are cheaper than EUR 100, and almost 20,000 tickets are available for EUR 24, the Hungarian Olympic Committee announced.
This is the last round of ticket sales before the Games for all Olympic sports (except surfing, which does not require a ticket), therefore people should hurry to get the better seats.
New tickets are also available for the opening ceremony on July 26 from EUR 90 and for the closing ceremony from EUR 250.
Via MTI, Olimpia.hu; Featured image via Facebook/Olympics
