The Olympic committees of 16 countries in central, eastern and southern Europe expressed their support for Budapest’s bid to host the 2024 summer Olympic Games at general meeting of the European Olympic Committee in Prague on Saturday.
The Olympic committees of Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey voiced their support for the capital’s bid. Zlatko Matesa, the head of the Croatian Olympic Committee, motioned to support Budapest’s bid, said Zsigmond Nagy, the Hungarian Olympic Committee’s international director. The 16 committees agreed that Budapest would make an ideal host for the games among the countries in the region, noting its proximity and security among a number of positive attributes, he added.
The Hungarian capital is competing against Los Angeles, Hamburg, Rome and Paris to host the 2024 Olympic Games as the International Olympic Committee will pick the host at a congress in September of 2017. Budapest and the Hungarian Olympic Committee sent their application to host the games to the IOC in July. The Hungarian bid is supported both by Parliament and the government as Hungary’s 2016 state budget allocates 36 billion forints (EUR 12m) in support for the construction of a National Olympic Centre.
via hungarymatters.hu and MTI