WCH Budapest23 - 500 days to go - article header
The competition will start on August 19, 2023, in exactly 500 days, at the largest sports event in the history of Hungary. The World Athletics Championships is the third largest sporting event in the world after the Summer Olympic Games and the Football World Cup, followed by more than a billion viewers on television, print and online media.
"It is with great pride that Hungary and Hungarian athletics will host this wonderful event. It is a fantastic opportunity for Hungarian athletes to compete in front of Hungarian fans and a fantastic opportunity for Hungarian fans to personally experience the excitement of a World Athletics Championships, support Hungarians and see also the international stars,” said Miklós Gyulai, the president of the Hungarian Athletics Association and co-chairman of the local organizing committee of the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23. "Budapest will take over the baton from Oregon this summer, so we are also looking forward to the first World Athletics Championships in the United States, which will start in exactly 100 days and will help the organizers of the World Championships Budapest 23 and Hungarian athletes with many learnings and inspirations" - he added.
Athletes from more than 200 countries will take part in the nine-day competition, which will take place at the brand-new National Athletics Centre on the banks of the Danube in Budapest. Two events, the marathon, and the race walk will be held in the heart of Budapest, so athletes, fans and TV viewers will have a wonderful view of the historical parts of the city, with the Danube in the background.
"For us, the world championships is not just about these nine wonderful days, which is what the competition itself means. The development of Hungarian athletics is at least as important to us, and in this sense the world championships has already started. Thirty percent more children started athletics in 2021 than a year earlier. New facilities have been built and the knowledge of organizing competitions is constantly evolving, partly due to the 11-year-old Gyulai István Memorial - Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix and partly because in addition to the World Athletics Championships, Hungary has already hosted all major world athletics competitions. " - said Péter Deutsch, CEO of Budapest 2023 Nzrt., which organizes the world championships.
According to all statistics, athletics was the most successful sport at the Tokyo Olympics and athletics has continued that momentum ever since. Three world records were broken or set in March in Belgrade at the World Indoor Championships, and due to changes caused by the coronavirus epidemic, there will also be an outdoor world championships in the U.S. state of Oregon this year. Thus, after Doha in 2019 and Oregon in 2022, Budapest will take over the baton and one of the most important sporting events in the world will return to Europe in 2023.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said: “We’re in a very exciting five-year period for our sport with a world championships or Olympic Games every year to showcase athletics around the globe. The world championships in Budapest will be the centrepiece of our 2023 competition schedule. This event will leave an important legacy for Hungary and for athletics with the construction of a wonderful new national athletics stadium and the wider development of the sport in Hungary, which I’m sure will continue to inspire future generations.”
Ticket sales for the 23rd World Athletics Championships in Budapest will begin in the summer of 2022 and official information is available at wabudapest23.com.
