An enthusiastic crowd of more than a thousand people, relatives, friends, fans and members of the media welcomed the golden machine from the Paris Olympics, as well as Hungarian Olympians who had returned home on Monday afternoon in the Puskás Sculpture Park.

The golden machine was delayed, so the buses carrying the competitors and their coaches rolled into the park of the Puskás Arena at a quarter past 5. At the festive welcome held in the shadow of the tower building, Zsolt Gyulay, the president of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, greeted the gathered and then called the Olympians who participated in the pentathlon in Paris, including those who returned home with the golden machine, to the stage. The fans greeted the athletes with huge applause.

"We fought the noble fight, we fought for every second, every hit, sometimes even in the face of overwhelming power, and we achieved a result that we can be rightly proud of"

– Zsolt Gyulay began his speech, and then, as the president of the MOB, he officially announced that the Hungarian team finished 14th out of 206 countries in the medal table. According to him, this data says everything about the success of Hungarian sports.

The sports manager added: they have survived an Olympics that had a rough start, but turned out to be fantastic, and at the end of which Michelle Gulyás won the 190th gold medal of the Hungarian Olympic team.

He reminded her that the Hungarian Olympic team has always brought home gold medals in the past 128 years and has always been successful. Finally, he thanked the 180 competitors who participated, the professionals who prepared them, the athletes' relatives, and finally the government for supporting elite sports and continuing to treat it as a strategic sector.

Then, on behalf of the MVM, Deputy CEO József Tamáska took the stage and spoke about how the Paris Olympics increased Hungarians' sense of belonging and patriotism. Afterwards, he handed over a VIP invitation to a randomly chosen concert to be held in the MVM Dome to the competitors who won medals in the kayak-canoe.

On behalf of Szerencsejáték Zrt., commercial director Zsófia Bánhegyi invited all medal-winning athletes and their coaches from Paris to an exclusive greeting, which will be held as part of the League of Nations match between Hungary and Bosnia-Herzegovina in September.

The invitation board was handed over to Michelle Gulyás, Olympic champion in the pentathlon on Sunday.

The presenters also spoke to some successful athletes for a few sentences. Kristóf Milák, who has been hiding from the public for the past period, also took the microphone and said: he received a lot of messages of support and encouragement, the swimmer, now a two-time Olympic champion, thanked all those who absolutely trusted him to succeed over the past two years for their support.

Hubert Kós said he can only rest for a week, after which he will travel back to the United States to start preparing for the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Budapest in December.

In the sequel, for the first time in the history of the Hungarian Olympic movement, Zsolt Gyulay invited the athletes' training specialists to the stage, who thus figuratively appeared on the MBH Bank Recognition Podium, and joint recordings were also made with them.

At the end of the program, the fans had the opportunity to meet the Hungarian Olympians in person, take photos together, and collect signatures.

MTI

Cover photo: Kristóf Milák (gold medalist in 100-meter butterfly and silver medalist in 200-meter butterfly), Hubert Kós (gold medalist in 200-meter backstroke), Dóra Alida Gazsó (silver medalist in kayak two 500 meters and bronze medalist in kayak four 500 meters), and Tamara Csipes (silver medalist in kayak single 500 meters, silver medalist kayak two 500 meters and bronze medalist kayak four 500 meters) (bj) at the ceremonial reception of the Hungarian team returning from the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in the sculpture park of Puskás Ferenc Stadium on August 12, 2024. Source: MTI/Zoltán Máthé