Recent rule changes banning college wrestlers from using severe dehydration to lose weight should end the dangerous practice that led to the deaths of three athletes last fall, says Priscilla M. Clarkson, a University of Massachusetts exercise science professor. The practice was undertaken to qualify to compete in a lower weight category where wrestlers would have a competitive advantage.
Dehydration is quite dangerous.
It was very widespread and had become part of the culture of wrestling. In some cases, wrestlers were having to be carried to the weigh-in because they were so weakened. In April, Clarkson and other members of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Standards and Medical Aspects of Sport, met in Kansas City, Mo., with the NCAA Wrestling Rules Committee. The two bodies recommended a series of changes. These include prohibiting the use of laxatives and emetics, excessive food and fluid restriction, self-induced vomiting, and the use of rubber suits, hot rooms, saunas, and steam rooms.