Wrestling sanctioning body approves new uniforms

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (AP) International wrestling is about to get a lot more colorful.

United World Wrestling, the sport's sanctioning body, announced Friday that it will allow nations to replace the standard red and blue singlets with ones featuring their home colors.

The new uniforms will come in light and dark, and feature red and blue markings. Red and blue singlets were previously used to help referees distinguish the athletes, but often made it tough for fans to tell which country the wrestlers represented.

The new guidelines will take effect starting with Olympic qualifying events in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in April.

The move is part of the sport's ongoing efforts to modernize in the wake of the IOC's decision to remove wrestling from the Olympic program in 2013. The sport was reinstated eight months later.