WASHINGTON - Wrestlers who push their weight below what's considered a healthy minimum increase their chances of victory, a study finds. But the study's authors emphasize that this practice, carried out the wrong way, can damage the wrestler's health. Last year, three collegiate wrestlers died after dehydrating while trying to cut weight. The study of Ohio high school wrestlers showed that those who reduced their weight more than state guidelines spelled out did better in a qualifying round for the post-season state championships.

The study highlights a major flaw in the current weight control standards, which are aimed at preventing dehydration, eating disorders and worse among highly competitive wrestlers, said Donald P. Moxley, one of the paper's authors. Kids who make decisions outside the guidelines are more successful, said Moxley, an exercise physiologist with sports medicine grant, a private sports medicine practice in Columbus, Ohio. The study was published in an American college of sports medicine journal, medicine and science in sports and exercise.

(AP)