The rationale is correct, in my opinion, but its sad that its come to this, not for the athletes, but just in general. No more naked weigh-ins in high school wrestling, not in this age of cell-phone cameras and easy access to the Internet.
Among wrestling rules changes approved last week by the National Federation of State High School Associations is that starting next season competitors must weigh in wearing "suitable" undergarments.
That means something covering the buttocks, groin and (in the case of girls) the breasts.
"The concern is technology. We're getting into cell phones getting into weigh-in areas. It's a privacy thing," said Bob Colgate, assistant director of the Indianapolis-based association.
There have been breaches of that privacy.
"There is every year," Colgate said. "If I was in a state association office, I'd rather have someone upset at me that their daughter or son was a tenth of a pound overweight than call and tell me, 'Why is their picture on the Internet?' "
With weight classes in wrestling, a tenth of a pound can prevent a wrestler from competing at that weight. That was motivation for some to totally strip.
The previous rule was they could wear "no more" than an undergarment, and there was a rationale for that. Weigh-ins also are when wrestlers undergo checks for skin conditions such as ringworm. It is a total body check of limbs and torsos.
"They didn't want you covering up some kind of communicable skin condition," said Dale Pleimann, chairman of the association's wrestling rules committee.
The new rule is about images spreading on the Internet.
"With cell phones and (video) recordings and pictures and stuff like that, privacy issues were a great concern," Pleimann said. "All it takes is one time. With the ease of putting stuff like that on the Internet, YouTube and all those things, we just felt it's better to make sure that everybody is appropriately covered."
Colgate also said the rule accommodates female doctors and athletic trainers doing skin checks on males and vice versa.
Before last season, the NCAA made a rules change that wrestlers must weigh in wearing briefs, boxers or a competition singlet.
It also cited privacy and the increased number of female athletic trainers, doctors and administrators.
The NCAA had allowed naked weigh-ins. In international freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling outside of the school setting, the rule is that wrestlers must weigh in wearing their competition singlets. That was done at last week's U.S. Open in Cleveland.
From:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100502/SPORTS0810/5030313/1003/SPORTS/High-schools-ban-naked-weigh-ins-for-wrestlingThis photo is in the Classic Section of
our galleries and its simplicity and innocence is wonderful. Its something our kids will miss, thanks to scum and idiots.