Balázs Fürjes, a Hungarian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), called the inaugural Olympic Qualifier Series hosted at Budapest’s Ludovika campus a „global success” on Sunday. Fürjes told MTI that over 60,000 people had visited the campus to see athletes in BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding and sport climbing vie for a spot at the Olympic Games in Paris during the four-day contest. On Sunday, the last day of the qualifier, the campus crowd reached capacity and fans who arrived mid-afternoon had to wait for people to leave before being let in, he added. The event is being broadcast on television in close to 100 countries and over 200 foreign journalists are covering the competition.
Earlier on Sunday, Zsolt Gyulay, the president of the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB), said one of the most important results of the four-day qualifier, which wound up on International Olympic Day, was the chance to reach age groups that didn’t follow the Olympic Games. „That might seem strange to people who follow traditional sports, but if we look at sport climbing which has been included on the Olympic programme in a period of under four years, then these sports will soon come into their own,” he added. Hungary was the second stop in the Olympic Qualifier Series after Shanghai.