Faster, Higher, Stronger

As MoD State Secretary for Sport Dr. Ádám Schmidt also pointed out, based on the amount of acquired quotas – altogether 180 ones – we are ranked 15th in the world, which is an especially remarkable achievement, considering that we are preceded by more than 100 countries in terms of area and more than 90 countries in terms of population. “On the one hand, this is a great pride and a great recognition of Hungary. On the other hand, it attests to a very robust Hungarian sporting life. Moreover, we can observe a robust European dominance in a number of sports that are priorities to us, so it is much more difficult for us to be qualified for the Olympics than for countries on other continents” – said the state secretary for sport.

With the Olympics approaching, he stated more and more often that it is not only the first placement that counts as victory, but also the performance that we had not been able to give earlier. Nevertheless, of course we hope to win as many medals as possible, which can almost be taken for granted in some sports such as canoeing, fencing, swimming and wrestling – and we also stand a good chance of that in water polo, for example, as well.

Although success depends significantly on the minutes – or rather, milliseconds – of the competition, the intensive work of the preceding training period plays an equal, if not bigger, role. Thus, Dr. Ádám Schmidt personally visited our athletes during workout on multiple occasions in recent weeks. “When Deputy State Secretary for Sport Gábor Schmidt and I started our service, we made a decision to work towards an open, sincere and clear dialogue with all participants of Hungarian sporting life in order to be able to know each other’s ideas” – said the state secretary for sport about the concept behind the initiative, adding that he was honored to have the opportunity to speak informally and selflessly with the athletes in their own environment.

“If an athlete wins, we say we have won, in the plural” – this was how Dr. Ádám Schmidt pointed out the significance of podium places, also noting that the attention being paid to the Olympic Games has a good effect on awakening the young people’s interest in sport. After all, our goal is to turn from a sport nation into a nation doing sports.

Sources: MTI, index.hu

Personnel of the Hungarian Defence Forces Sports Company participating in the Olympics:

• Sergeant Gergely Siklósi, fencing
• Private First Class Ádám Varga, canoeing (K)
• Corporal Kolos Csizmadia, canoeing (K)
• Corporal Noémi Pupp, canoeing (K)
• Private First Class Sára Fojt, canoeing (K)
• Private First Class Balázs Adolf, canoeing
• Private First Class Dániel Fejes, canoeing
• Corporal Blanka Guzi, pentathlon
• Private First Class Csaba Bőhm, pentathlon
• Private First Class Szofi Özbas, judo
• Private First Class Zsombor Vég, judo
• Corporal Zsanett Bragmayer, triathlon
• Corporal Bence Venyercsán, athletics
• Corporal Rita Récsei, athletics
• Sergeant Zoltán Lévai, wrestling
• Corporal Dániel Dósa, fencing
• Corporal Flóra Pásztor, fencing
• Corporal Richárd Kovács, boxing
• Corporal Sára Fábián, shooting
• Corporal Bernadett Nagy, wrestling
• Corporal Norbert Tóth, athletics
• Corporal Ágnes Kiss, canoeing
• Corporal Panna Ugrai, swimming