In other sports, policies for infants are different.
Paris:
New parents heading to the Paris Olympics have called for changes to ticketing rules after they discovered their babies would be denied entry to venues unless they had their own seats.
Margaux Giddings, a nurse from southwestern France, got pregnant and recently gave birth to her baby after buying her space last year when gymnastics first came on the market.
“I’m breastfeeding my daughter, who will be five months old when the Olympics take place,” the 33-year-old from Bayonne told AFP. “It bothers me to be away from her. I want to use a sling or a baby Carry her with you in a sling.”
The policy for the Olympics, which runs from July 26 to August 11, states that “all spectators are required to have a valid ticket to enter Olympic venues, including children of all ages.”
Ticket holder Tom Baker, 37, from London, who is about to give birth to his first child with wife Kate, said: “When I found out the baby would need his own seat as soon as he was born, I was absolutely terrified Believe.” in May.
He contacted Paris 2024 and was told via a chat service that he should consider buying tickets for the Paralympics because, unlike the Olympics, discounted prices are available for children.
“I said ‘Wait a minute! We bought the tickets a year and a half before the event and we didn’t even know we were definitely going to try to get pregnant’,” he told AFP.
“There’s no way you could know about it and fix it because the tickets are sold out.”
He and Kate, plus her brother and mother, have spent about 3,000 euros ($3,300) on seats for kayaks and beach volleyball, among other things.
Welfare issues?
The Paris organizing committee has already faced criticism over ticket prices but has stood by its decision to require everyone, including babies, to have their own seat.
“In general, Paris 2024 does not recommend that parents bring children under the age of four to competition venues,” the Paris 2024 Olympic Committee said in a statement to AFP.
“Paris 2024 urges them to consider stadium settings that may not be suitable for the welfare of young children.”
In other sports, policies for infants are different.
Children of all ages need seats at Euros and World Cup football matches, and many big clubs advise against bringing babies, but in sports such as rugby, cricket or athletics, babies are usually free.
The 2012 London Olympics started with the same policy as Paris, but organizers changed the policy under public and media pressure.
Adrien Pol, a social worker from Liege, Belgium, who is expecting his first child in June, hopes for a similar shift.
“It’s discriminatory against women,” he said of the policy. “We wanted to breastfeed so ultimately my partner Marine had to stay with our baby.
“Even if this is something we want to do together, she may have to make sacrifices,” he added.
“Get a nanny”
A French-language petition has been posted on change.org denouncing the rules as “unfair, unnatural and contrary to the Olympic spirit” and has so far attracted around 170 signatures.
Discussions of the issue on the Reddit online chat platform prompted many unsympathetic comments urging new parents to stay away from the issue.
One wrote: “Do your baby a favor and find them a nanny because no baby wants to be in a large place with thousands of people, tons of free flowing germs and extreme noise.”
Bol said parents should be free to make their own choices, adding that his basketball and beach volleyball classes are only three hours long.
“With the right equipment, babies can handle it easily,” he told AFP. “All they need is to feel safe and in their parents’ arms.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
