The Budapest bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics and Summer Paralympics was announced by the

Hungarian Olympic Committee The Hungarian Olympic Committee (, , MOB) is the National Olympic Committee representing Hungary. History The Hungarian Olympic Committee was founded on 19 December 1895, as sixth in the world, following the French, Greek, American, German a ...

() on 11 November 2013, although organisers had been planning a bid since 2008. On 1 March 2017, Budapest withdrew its bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, leaving only

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in the race.

Bid history

In February 2015, the MOB recommended that the bid plan go forward and with the

General Assembly of Budapest The General Assembly of Budapest ( ) is a unicameral body consisting of 33 members, who are elected by proportional representation in a single citywide constituency with an electoral threshold of 5%, and the Mayor of Budapest (who is Direct elect ...

began work on detailed cooperation for the Games. Then in January 2016, city authorities approved the plan for the potential Olympic Games locations. The two other candidate cities were Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028. Hamburg pulled out of the contest in November 2015 and Rome in September 2016. Budapest pulled out of the contest in February 2017. Water and movement are the key elements of the Budapest 2024 logo, the result of a national contest that involved almost 200 artists, children, graphic designers, and students. It was designed by Graphasel Design Studio in 2016. This was seen as fitting for an Olympic bid that featured the

River Danube The Danube ( ; see also other names) is the second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. A large and historically important riv ...

as a backdrop. On 27 January 2016, the

approved a list of potential venues. Despite a seemingly low chance of succeeding with the bid Hungarian capital continued to move ahead with its campaign.

Aftermath

On 22 February 2017, Budapest announced that it would withdraw its bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, leaving only Los Angeles and Paris in the race. Paris hosted the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

and Los Angeles will host the

2028 Summer Olympics The 2028 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 2028 or LA 28, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place July 14–30, 2028, in the United States. Los Angeles ...

. In January 2021, Budapest resumed the discussion about a possible future Summer Olympics bid for

2032 The 2030s (pronounced "twenty-thirties" or "two thousand ndthirties"; shortened to "the '30s" and also known as "The Thirties") is the next decade that will begin on 1 January 2030, and end on 31 December 2039. Plans and goals * NASA plans to exe ...

and beyond. Despite this, the bid was not included and was later given to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Previous bids

Budapest's bid to host the

1916 Summer Olympics The 1916 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the VI Olympiad ( German: ''Spiele der VI. Olympiade''), were scheduled to be held in Berlin, Germany. However, they were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War I, the first tim ...

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (; ; ), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (; ; ) and commonly known as Antwerp 1920 (; Dutch language, Dutch and German language, German: ''Antwerpen 1920''), were an international multi-sport event held i ...

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

1944 Summer Olympics The 1944 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIII Olympiad, was a planned international multi-sport event scheduled to have been held from 22 July to 5 August 1944 in London, England, United Kingdom. The games were cancelled b ...

, and

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

but lost to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

(cancelled due to

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, Berlin, London (cancelled due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

), and

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

respectively.

Venues

The 2024 Budapest Olympic bid sought to take advantage of the compactness of the city and co-location of venues along the River Danube and others around the Budapest area.

Budget

Based on publicly available information covering earlier estimates of potential costs of an Olympic Games in Budapest, and considering international past experiences, as well as the framework of the organisation of Games set by the Olympic Agenda 2020, the direct costs associated to a potential Budapest Olympics could be estimated at between HUF 500 billion to HUF 1,000 billion (US$1.8 billion to US$3.6 billion).

Political commitment

Budapest's plan has seen opposition from the Együtt ('Together') party and two other minority parties in the General Assembly of Budapest. Some representatives on the council led calls for a public referendum on the issue but this came to an end in January 2016. The Kúria, Hungary's supreme court, rejected a last-minute proposal that citizens should have the chance to have their say in a public vote. Prime Minister

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who has been the 56th prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has also led the Fidesz political party since 200 ...

's government had thrown its full support behind the Budapest bid. He had said in a speech: "Hungary believes that sport is always more important than any other political interest, and that is why it must never be diverted into the arena of political battles. The Government supports the bid." Orbán said, "We are not only competing for ourselves, but representing the whole region". He said that over the past 120 years the Olympics have become a "passion" of the Hungarian people, and this may have developed "because the Olympic spirit represents such a pure form of freedom that was once rare here in Central Europe". In January 2016, former Hungarian president

Pál Schmitt Pál Schmitt (; born 1942) is a Hungarian Olympic fencer and politician who served as President of Hungary from 2010 until his resignation in 2012, following his academic misconduct controversy. Schmitt was a successful fencer in his ...

was appointed President of the Budapest 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games Bid Committee. According to the research institute Nézőpont Intézet, support among Hungarians for hosting the Olympics has risen from 40% in August 2014 to 53% by January 2016. However, according to a research made by Publicus, in August 2016 only 45% supported the bid.

Controversy and referendum petition

Most Hungarian opposition parties and civil organisations criticised the government for the bid, accusing it of corruption and of spending money on the Olympic Games instead of developing healthcare, education and transportation in Budapest. In January 2017 a civil organisation called ''

Momentum Movement Momentum Movement (, Momentum) is a centrist Hungarian political party founded in March 2017. It came to national prominence as a political association in January 2017 after organizing a petition about the Budapest bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics ...

'' started a petition to have a referendum for

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

residents on whether or not to host the Summer Olympics in 2024. Several opposition parties, such as Lehet Más a Politika (LMP), Együtt, Párbeszéd Magyarországért (PM), Magyar Szocialista Párt (MSZP) and Demokratikus Koalíció (DK) joined the movement, as well as Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt (MKKP), which also started a satiric poster campaign against the bid in February. A total of 138,527 signatures was required to be collected from Budapestians until 17 February 2017 to start a referendum that would be held in Budapest. Only residents of the capital city would be able to cast a valid vote. 266,151 signatures were submitted by Momentum on 17 February. Just three working days later, the government decided on 22 February that, instead of holding a referendum on the Olympic games, they would withdraw the bid. The government cited a lack of unity as the reason for their decision after heavy criticism from opposition parties for not organising a referendum.

References

External links

Budapest 2024

Budapest 2024 on YouTube

Budapest 2024 on Facebook

Candidature file

Stage 1: Vision, Games Concept and Strategy

Stage 2: Governance, Legal and Venue Funding
{{Bids for the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics 2024 Summer Olympics bids Sport in Budapest *