“Our country has invested a lot of energy into sport”

In his speech, Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that over the last 15 years, Hungary has invested a lot of energy into organizing various major sporting events. By way of example, he mentioned the earlier two successfully organized World Aquatic Championships, the summer World Athletics Championships and the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, which has been hosted by our country since 1986. He added that meanwhile, substantial infrastructural capabilities and sports competition organizing skills had been built in several sports. He stated that this must continue unabated, since this is what attracts people into the world of sport, which is the most important objective after all.

World Aquatics President Kuwaiti Husein Al-Musallam said thanks to the government of Hungary and the aquatic sports federations. He noted that this building complex would be constructed for the future generation.

As also shown in a dazzling introductory film, the headquarters – situated a couple of minutes’ walk from Danube Arena in the 13th district of Budapest – will be more than an office building, as it will also house a modern training center, where, as part of a unique solution, in addition to two training pools, there will be a 27-meter-high giant diving platform as well. Moreover, there will be hotel rooms at the headquarters for those athletes of the World Aquatics Scholarship Programme who study and train in Budapest. The federation intends to organize at this headquarters the already third Budapest World Aquatics Championships in 2027. At the event, the organizers introduced the emblem of the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) to take place in Budapest in 2024, which features the silhouette of the Chain Bridge and the World Aquatics logo as well.

Prior to the award ceremony, the architectural plans of the future World Aquatics Headquarters were revealed. According to schedule, the headquarters will have been completed by the end of 2026, at the same time the organization intends to partially move to the Hungarian capital as early as the second half of 2024. Under the agreement on relocation signed in Fukuoka in July, Hungarian employees will make up half of the headquarters staff.