New Hungarian Olympic Committee President opposes any kind of boycott

BUDAPEST, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- New Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) President Zsolt Gyulai expects medals for Hungary in the Beijing Winter Olympics, and opposes any kind of boycott, he told Xinhua on Saturday, following his election.

"We Hungarians can expect a good performance from the short trackers at the Winter Olympics, so I trust that we will get medals ... if not gold medals, but we can certainly expect medals from the short trackers and we hope for the best performance," said Gyulai, a former canoeist and a double Olympic champion at 1988 Seoul Games in K-1 500m and K-4 1000m.

The short track speed skaters won Hungary's first winter olympic gold medal in PyeongChang, thanks to the Chinese Hungarian Liu Brothers, Liu Shaolin and Liu Shaoang.

Gyulai is expected to travel to Beijing next Tuesday, and is very eager to see the Winter Olympics, as he himself has taken part only in Summer Olympics.

Gyulai missed the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics because of the political boycott from Hungary. So he opposed any attempt to boycott the Olympics.

"I witnessed and suffered in 1984 from an Olympic boycott that had a very bad effect on my career, so I really don't like any kinds of political boycotts and I would not confuse the Olympics with politics at all," he said.

He concluded the interview with blessings for the Beijing Olympics and left with a cheerful: "Let's go to Beijing!".

Out of the 48 voting members present at the election, 34 voted for the 57-year-old Gyulai, who is the chairman and CEO of Hungaroring Sport Ltd, while the other candidate, Balazs Hajdu, a lawyer and an Olympic sailor, collected 14 votes.

The previous president, Krisztian Kulcsar, who was elected in 2017 and confirmed in his position in June 2020, did not receive the majority of supporters in the vote of confidence he initiated at the general meeting last December 30, and then resigned with effect from January 31.

Zsolt Gyulay will assume his duties as MOB President from February 1.