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In the interview published on Saturday, the Prime Minister said he had secretly hoped for eight gold medals, but regarded even the six first places attained as a fair accomplishment. Mr Orbán observed if we take a look at the present, we can conclude that we stood our ground well, we are maintaining our form. “If we look at the results from the perspective of the future and use the latest Olympiad as a means to understand the Olympiads of the future, what we are capable of at present is not enough, it’s only enough for becoming continually relegated,” he added. In his view, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand and the countries of Central Asia of combat sports “will stroll right past us.”
Mr Orbán pointed out that we cannot be left out of new sports either. “This is a difficult professional task which the Olympic Committee will have to take care of, but we cannot give up on the chances we may have in the new sports incorporated into the Olympic programme because by doing so we relegate ourselves,” he said.
According to the Prime Minister, preserving our place is an enormous achievement, but quoting the sabre fencer Áron Szilágyi, he highlighted that what is enough today will be too little tomorrow. “Sports is not mathematics,” he explained, adding that “you cannot expect achievements from sports the way we expected the attainment of production indicators in the old days in socialism.” At the same time, he pointed out that the Hungarians had a place in the top ten.
In every Olympiad, to be in the top ten, and also on the whole, from the perspective of the history of Olympiads, to be in the top ten. There is no point in setting a lesser target,
Mr Orbán stressed.
He also spoke about the fact that Hungarians are characteristically unsatisfied, but “in contrast to the liberal kind of dissatisfaction,” there is the type of dissatisfaction “which – rather than being destructive, phlegmatic, negative and unappreciative – conveys determination and designates tasks. And if this good kind of dissatisfaction is in the majority in Hungary, then sports will develop.” He highlighted that it was not irrelevant in what way we were unsatisfied with our performance.
The Prime Minister pointed out that we had unexplored opportunities, and mentioned cycling as an example. “It shows that there is some mysterious connection that is difficult to put into words between the sport and Hungarians. It is a mistake that we have abandoned cycling. The construction of velodromes was part of the Hungarian sports development plans, but was cancelled due to a shortage of funds.” He observed that we should build minimum two, but preferably three. At the same time, according to Mr Orbán, we also have a potential in combat sports, and not only where men are concerned.
Mr Orbán also spoke about the missed gold medal opportunities in wrestling, canoeing and kayaking, swimming and fencing. “In these sports, we have always had outstanding geniuses. Áron Szilágyi in fencing, Danuta Kozák in canoeing most recently, Katinka Hosszú in swimming. At this point in time, we have no athletes who could win two or even three gold medals, even though this could significantly boost the number of our medals,” he added.
In answer to the question of whether Kristóf Milák could become such a genius, he said “there are independent-minded geniuses whom we can best help by not interfering in how they do things.” “In football there was Zoli Varga, in swimming there is Kristóf Milák, in pentathlon we had a Balczó. For them the one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work, they’re born geniuses. We are very proud of them. But we don’t have to understand the performance of every Hungarian genius. We must be simply happy that we have them,” Mr Orbán said, adding that Milák must be helped, encouraged and left alone, and he may yet beat the world also in disciplines other than the butterfly. “I keep following the news coming from the States as well, and perhaps, we could also expect more from Hubert Kós,” he added.
Regarding regional medal rankings, he said “it’s good that we’re competing with the countries of the region and are at the very top. But it’s not good for us if they’re not constantly competing with us. More successful Romanians, more successful Croats, even more gold medals for the Serbs, medals for the Slovaks, this is what we have a vested interest in,” he pointed out.
If anyone thinks that Hungary can be successful detached from the region, they are wrong, equally as regards sports and politics. Central Europe must be successful,
Mr Orbán stressed.
Regarding team sports, he highlighted that we should be at the Olympics in all the traditional team sports, but at least the chance should always be there – beyond in water polo and handball – also in football, basketball and volleyball. “As regards water polo, what we’re feeling is not some emptiness, but downright disappointment,” he added, observing that in Hungary people have a fair judgement also as regards performance in sports. “But the Hungarians also know something else. That the champion is quite another category. There is only a small distance between a silver medal and a bronze medal, but silver is a world apart from gold,” he said.
He highlighted that it is fantastic that the last gold medal in conventional pentathlon came to Hungary through a lady of ours. “If anyone has something to say about victory, Michelle Gulyás surely does,” Mr Orbán said. “And while every victory is wonderful, we also had an epic victory, that of Kristóf Rasovszky.” Mr Orbán pointed out that Kristóf Rasovszky had won in a sport in which Hungarian men had never previously won an Olympic gold.
Regarding the swimming events organised in the polluted Seine, Mr Orbán highlighted that we must not believe that all nations receive the same treatment in the world. “Hungarian victories are especially precious because Hungarians are usually discriminated against. There are not many opportunities and not many sports where we are able to represent ourselves at a level where we are afforded fair treatment, or where we enter the pitch in an environment that favours us. We usually start from a disadvantage and win from there,” he pointed out.
The Prime Minister drew attention to the fact that university students obtained 16 of the 19 medals in Paris, “meaning that we can expect more from universities also in competitive sports than we previously believed.” He spoke about sailing as well. He said “if in sailing talents come forward one after the other, then the clue to this mystery is that there is something that the Hungarians see in this sport, something that perhaps others don’t, something that may make us capable of reaching the very top, and if that is the case, then we must assist sports of this kind.”
The Prime Minister stressed that they would start the next Olympic period with the incumbent state secretary for sports Ádám Schmidt. “I have already started working with him, we’re currently reviewing a methodology for evaluating the Olympics. There is a series of new sports development agreements in the making which the state secretary will have to see through,” the Prime Minister stated, observing that the latest Olympiad should have been held in Budapest.
In this regard, he highlighted that “it is evident that if the Budapest metropolitan leadership doesn’t support the idea of an Olympiad in Budapest, there will be no Olympiad.” In his view, all they can do is to make available for the Olympic Committee all the conditions that are necessary for preparing for hosting an Olympiad.
“The golden gate is open, we should just slip right through it. It was already here before, we could have pulled this one off, too, but we can surely pull off the 2036 one if we want to. I don’t think that any other venue than Budapest and Hungary would better conform to the principles announced by the International Olympic Committee,” Mr Orbán said, taking the view that there is no other country in the world that has as many up-to-date tested facilities suitable for Olympic purposes as Hungary. “An athletics stadium, the Puskás Arena, we are here in the Danube Arena now. We have everything. We should only assemble and then disassemble a few mobile venues, and that’s it,” he added.
In the interview, Mr Orbán also spoke about the disputes that erupted during the Olympics as well as the opening ceremony which many found shocking. He said “everything that is important for us is under an all-out attack.”
“National identity, without which the whole world makes no sense for a Hungarian, is under attack, is sustaining insults which were previously unprecedented. What may have once seemed like nationalism is today a question of survival like the need for bread,” he pointed out. “If we fail to get a foothold, if we fail to put our foot down, they will turn upside down the very world in which you can lead a life worth living, in which a woman is a woman, a French person is a French person, a Hungarian is a Hungarian, and an American is an American.”
In the interview, the Prime Minister was also asked about the football season and the fact that never before had this many Hungarian teams been in the race for qualifying for the main draws of European cups. Mr Orbán said he is not satisfied with the situation. “It’s better than it was, but is far from where we want to be,” he added. In his view, “anyone who says that there are no positive changes in this sport” must very much hate the government, Hungarian football “and perhaps even their own country.”
“Today, I can already see the talent and the skills in the guys graduating from the academies which could easily constitute half of the Hungarians players of minimum 12 Hungarian teams. And yet, we don’t rely on them. Including the Puskás Academy, we ourselves are not there yet. When there will be five or six domestically trained players on the field and four or five foreigners, then we can say that this is what we had in mind,” Mr Orbán said in conclusion in the interview given to the sports daily Nemzeti Sport.
