While awaiting for the beginning of the Olympic opening events, is your excitement felt as a former Olympian, or your role as a leader of Hungary’s Olypic delegation?

Pál Schmitt Although I am able to put myself into the athlete’s place and I do encourage them with gestures and words. As the president of Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) and chief of protocol of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as well as president of the World Olympians Association (WOA), I prepare with the responsibility of a sports leader. My position as a leader gives me a task that to me means an indescribable pleasure and an enormous responsibility at the same time: to lead the Hungarian team. We would like to present our best in Athens, which requires proper preparations and the MOB tries to provide the optimal circumstances for this. Remaining in the background, and at the same time creating it, we play the role of coordinator.

XXVIII. Summer Olympic Games
According to the Hungarian Olympic Committee, more then 181 Hungarian athletes (104 men and 77 women) have qualified for the Upcoming Summer Olympic games in Athens. The number recently increased because of a newly qualified fencing champion, Gabrielle Varga. Still, however, the total number of athletes expected to participate may yet rise, since the race for participation is still taking place in the pentathlon, boxing and judo. As it stands, Hungarian athletes will compete in 19 sporting events in the Greek capital. In Olympic team sports, four Hungarian teams (the men’s and women’s water polo and handball teams) will represent Hungary – something that has not happened since the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Expectations are high for Hungary winning medals in "traditional" Hungarian sporting events such as kayaking-canoeing, fencing and the pentathlon. As of publication only Zsuzsanna Vörös (1999 and 2003 individual world champion) has qualified for taking part in the games.

is HUF 1.843 billion for Hungary’s Olympic preparations. This sum is distributed among various sports participating. Is this allotted as an annual sum or payment over a certain period?

Pál Schmitt The first one. We have HUF 1.5 billion on average per year to spend, naturally this sum rises a little in the year of the games, owing to the extra costs of the participation.

The system of sports funding stands on four pillars in Europe. We differentiate between state, local government funding, sponsorship and personal or family level funding. In what proportion is the MOB amount divided among the above mentioned?

Pál Schmitt We are proud of our supporters who help our work by various means of sponsorship, and maybe I do not speak too soon when I say that by the time this article appears, we might be able to welcome MOL again as a sponsor, but the state support is already outstanding. This year the core of the funding comes to almost 80 percent of the funds available.

By Hungarian standards, the almost HUF 1.6 billion obtained per year during the Olympic cycle sounds enormous, but it is quite clear Hungary’s competition sports are under financed. European Union countries spend an average of 1.5 percent of GDP on sport, why is this figure 0.3 percent in Hungary?

Pál Schmitt These indexes are not all the same, meaning that the factor is even bigger. We can talk about traditions, Hungarian values, coach-wizards and brilliant talent. In the long run we may unfortunately lose our competitiveness. Everyone is talking about economic problems, the clubs and associations are suffering, and as a responsible leader I can only say it is extremely difficult to hold our position in the frontline, that is to be in the first 15, in unofficial points, in competition between countries at the Olympics.

I would like to mention three current issues: the call for a truce to fighting around the world during the Olympic Games, security and the fight against drugs.

Pál Schmitt The Olympic truce call is also supported by the UN; all of its member countries have ratified it. The wonderful antique principle of a truce has unfortunately worked in a reverse way in the modern era. In the ancient times wars were avoided or finished because of the games, in the 20th century three Olympics were exiled by worldwide catastrophes. We can be proud of small achievements, for example, that in Sydney the two Koreas marched under one flag at the opening ceremony. Security? Sport has to live with politics. I am optimistic, because we have to defend one particular place at a given time against insanity, while what keeps terrorism and terrorists going is that no one can know where and when they would appear. As regards the third topic, doping is the darkest cloud on the sky of sport. Our weapons are education, control and finally, sanctioning of violators in this fight. The standpoint of MOB is clear: honesty, uprightness is the only way, so we have decided that every Hungarian athlete will be tested before the Olympics.

Athens is coming very soon. What kind of Olympic Games await us?

Pál Schmitt A games that will be on a more human scale than in the case of Sydney or Atlanta. A renewed Athens will receive the guests and will host an event where the role of culture and traditions will be stronger than ever. I would like to mention two examples: the route of the marathon will be the supposed original, ancient one, while the "Marble stadium" will host the shot put competitions, needless to say, already guaranteed to take place in front of a full house. The Olympics return to their birthplace, and this is how it should be.

Hungary’s medal hopes
According to one of the eternal truths, if you would like to know how many gold medals the Hungarian team will win at the next Olympic Games, then use the following recipe. Take your biggest dream, that is count all the sports, and within that all the events on the menu where you think a Hungarian has, more-or-less, a chance to win. Divide this by three.

High hopes for former gold medalist Katalin Kovács and Hungarian kayak team


" I have heard about this method before, there are some people who swear by it," Pál Schmitt said regarding the suggestion. "I am very optimistic about the performance of our team; I hope they will be able to achieve the same result as in Sydney. As a member of the IOC I am entitled to give the medals at the ceremony, we only have to signal beforehand in which ceremony following the event we would like to take part in. At any rate, I already signed up for all the events that Katalin Kovács member of the kayak team will participate in, although I still cannot promise any definite winners."
While not mentioning names, Schmitt sees hope for medals in kayak-canoeing, fencing, swimming, pentathlon, rowing and team games such as men’s and women’s water polo. Handball teams could all equally provide promising results for Hungarian supporters.