November 27, 2005 – At its biannual Board meeting this weekend in Ottawa, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) approved its team selection policy for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. The policy outlines the criteria that Canadian athletes and teams must meet to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Team.

At the meeting, the COC Board – which includes athlete members as well as representatives from all of Canada’s National Sport Federations – voted strongly in favour of using International Federation qualification criteria as the minimum standard for nomination to the 2008 Canadian Olympic Team. Similar to existing criteria for the 2006 and 2010 Olympic Winter Games, each summer National Sport Federation has the right to require selection standards for its athletes that are higher than International Federation criteria.

“The Canadian Olympic Committee is committed to working with our high performance sport partners to help athletes and coaches achieve podium success at Olympic Games,” said COC President Michael Chambers. “With International Federation performance criteria for most summer Olympic sports having been significantly raised in recent years, the adoption of these criteria for our Beijing team selection policy best matches the COC’s goal of improved podium success for Canadian athletes at the Games.”

Under the newly adopted Beijing team selection policy, summer National Sport Federations have agreed to submit their internal selection standards to the COC for feedback by June 2006. The COC and the sport federations will then finalize and publish the specific qualification criteria for each sport by the end of December 2006.

The Canadian Olympic Committee is a national, private, not-for-profit organization committed to sport excellence. It is responsible for all aspects of Canada’s involvement in the Olympic movement, including Canada’s participation in the Olympic and Pan American Games and a wide variety of programs that promote the Olympic Movement in Canada through cultural and educational means. For more information, see the COC website: www.olympic.ca.