Locals and tourists pose for photos in front of a giant illuminated ‘Budapest’ sign at the Heroes square of Budapest, Hungary. The city of Budapest has launched a bid to host the Olympics in 2024, in a letter sent to the president of the International Olympics Committee. (AFP)
Agencies/Budapest
The city of Budapest yesterday launched a bid to host the Olympics in 2024, in a letter sent to the president of the International Olympics Committee.
“Budapest announces its official candidacy for the hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games in 2024...with the support of the Hungarian government,” the letter addressed to Thomas Bach read.
The joint statement by Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos and Hungary’s Olympic Comittee boss Zsolt Borkai comes two days after the Hungarian parliament approved the bid by 151 to 33. Budapest joins Paris, Boston, Rome and Hamburg in the race for the Games.
Cities have until September 15 to enter bids and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will make a decision at a congress in Lima on September 15, 2017.
Hungary has never hosted an Olympics although it has applied on several occasions, the last time for the 1960 Games. Since Moscow in 1980 no country from Eastern Europe has won the right to hold the Summer Games.
The central European country with a population of 9.9 million, a founding member of the IOC, is in eighth place globally in terms of the number of medals won -- 168 gold, 148 silver, 170 bronze.
A study has shown that hosting the Olympics could generate 1,100 billion forints (3.5 billion euros, $4.1 billion dollars) in revenue, well above the 774 billion forints in required investments.
One of the world’s top swimming nations, Hungary is already hosting the World Swimming Championships in 2017, after Mexico’s Guadalajara pulled out for financial reasons.
Paris mayor lays out Olympic ambitions with plans to clean Seine
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo laid out a series of ambitions for her city to host the 2024 Olympics yesterday, as the field of contenders for the Games became more crowded with Budapest’s declaration that it would bid.
Hidalgo, a vocal environmental activist, said Paris would clean the Seine river that snakes through the city centre in order to host part of the triathlon competition there - a bid to woo both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and residents of the French capital. “The triathlon will take place in the Seine, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower,” Hidalgo said in an.
“To get there, we must continue working on the water quality in Paris. We are not at a water quality level that would allow bathing. Would I bath in the Seine today? No. With sporting events, there are water quality requirements that are not the same as with daily bathing.”
Hidalgo also said that the greatest impact of the Games, should Paris win the bid, would be on the working class neighbourhood of Seine-Saint-Denis northeast of the city.
If Paris beats the four other confirmed bidders - Hamburg, Rome and Boston, in addition to Budapest - and other cities that are expected to throw their hats in the ring, the city will break a 100-year gap since the last summer Games were held there.
The city hosted the Olympics in 1900 and 1924 but failed with bids for 1992, 2008 and 2012. The bid is expected to cost some 60 million euros (66 million dollars). The budget for the Games, if Paris wins its bid, has been estimated to be 6.2 billion euros - mostly devoted to infrastructure development. The deadline for bids is September 15 with the host city being named by the IOC in September 2017.
