State and municipality officials laid the foundation stone of a training pool in Budapest’s 11th district on Thursday – part of a Government initiative aimed at ensuring that every child should learn to swim. The event was attended by Minister of State for Sports and Youth István Simicskó, Mayor of the 11th district Tamás Hoffmann and Deputy Mayor of Budapest Gábor Bagdy.

“When we build training pools and gymnasiums, we think of our children and future generations. One of the major achievements in the recent past was that we gradually introduced daily physical education, a huge step forward in building a foundation for future generations of athletes and a sporting nation. Today more than 600,000 students participate in physical education and the number is rising with every day. In the five most popular team sports alone, the country now has 100,000 registered athletes, another major result” - Simicskó said at the ceremony.

He said the Government has been a firm supporter of sports since day one, with a clear focus on workshops, associations and local communities, where most of the day-by-day work happens.

Mr. Simicskó also pointed out that like elsewhere in the country, the 11th district has seen significant public investments in the past four years, including sports facilities in one of the district’s parks, the imminent completion of a sports hall and swimming pool complex, the 120 million forint (EUR 391,000) reconstruction of another swimming pool and the extension of a burther swimming pool also at a cost of 120 million forints.

A recent Eurobarometer poll confirmed the Government’s recent achievements, finding that 15 percent of Hungarians exercise regularly compared with the previous poll’s result of five percent, which is the biggest increase within the entire European Union.

(Ministry of Human Resources)