At its recent meeting the AOC Team Executive ruled out any possibility of babies being permitted to live in the Olympic Village at the 2008 Beijing Games.

The Team Executive, chaired by AOC President John Coates, considered the issue following recent media reports and made a ruling based on the fact that there is no Olympic accreditation available to babies or young children.

“Accreditation is extremely tight and only available to athletes and officials as part of an Olympic Team and there is no accreditation available for family members” Coates said. “On this basis we agreed there would be no access for people to take their babies into the Olympic Village in Beijing”.

The Executive noted it was possible for athletes with children to live out of the Olympic Village with the permission of the Chef de Mission.

If they choose to live outside the Village they are responsible for their own transport and security.

They would also need to address issues with health and safety.

The AOC is preparing to take a team of over five hundred athletes to the Beijing Games along with 270 support personnel.

The AOC has provided funding of $17.8million to prepare the team and another $11.5million just to send the team to Beijing in August 2008.