Hungarian Olympic Committee official blames PM for lack of gold

Hungarian Olympic Committee sports director Tamás Kovács blamed Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány for the lack of Hungarian gold medals at this year's Olympic games. Hungarian sporting officials and the public had forecast a haul of seven gold medals but so far the nation's athletes have not won any.

Speaking in Beijing on Sunday, Kovács said the sports ministry ceased to function when it was downgraded to a sports office and then an undersecretariat, adding that the Hungarian Olympic Committee now resembles a travel agency, only arranging trips to the Olympics.

The committee has become a venue for and victim of political skirmishes, he declared. Kovács complained that preparations for the Olympics take six to eight years, but funds provided at the last minute cannot make up for subsidies that were never paid and work that was not done throughout the years.

Hungary is trying to keep pace with the world under amateur conditions, which is harder and harder to achieve, Kovács remarked.

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