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Kurt Angle
- 1996 Olympic freestyle champion at 220 pounds
- 1996 World champion
- Six-time U.S. national champion
- Inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2001
- Was the fourth American to win titles at Junior Nationals (1987), NCAAs (1990, 1992), Worlds (1995) and the Olympic Games (1996)
- Four-time WWE champion (2000-2003), Intercontinental champion (2000), WCW champion (2001), United States champion (2001), European champion (2000), WWE Tag Team champion (2002)
- Won coveted WWE world title over The Rock in less than one year of joining the company in 2000
- Flirted with an Olympic comeback in 2002, but then was beset with injuries; had neck surgery in April of 2003
- Created the Angle Invitation on SmackDown!, where every week a local wrestler gets a chance to win Angle’s Olympic gold medal…if the hopeful can defeat or last just three minutes in the ring with Angle…so far, nobody has come close
- Launched a new amateur wrestling tournament, the Kurt Angle Classic, in 2002
- Leads an awareness campaign, "Get Tough on Angina," the heart condition that has greatly affected Kurt's family
- Words to live by, the three I's ... intelligence, intensity and integrity
- Makes appearances on behalf the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the WWE's voter registration campaign, "SmackDown Your Vote"
- Author of his best-selling autobiography, "It's True, It's True"
In 1995, Kurt had a tryout with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Kurt recalls the day for NFL.com: "I had a very good tryout, but I never played college ball. Everything I did went exceptionally well, but my 40 time was really slow. I ran a 4.8 that day. It was February and it was snowing so it was very hard to get my traction on the turf out there. But I don’t regret having the tryout and I don’t regret not making it because I wouldn’t be here right now. I wouldn’t have gotten my Olympic gold medal. I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world.
Related Links
Photo gallery: Olympic gold medalist wrestler Kurt Angle
Q&A: Olympian Kurt Angle on the WWE, a possible comeback
Official Web site: Kurt Angle
On wrestling today's resident athletes: It's amazing how much further they've progressed with their technique. It's completely changed since I was there. It continuously evolves. I can remember when I first started in freestyle in 1988 to eight years later in 1996, the whole technique evolved and changed. It's changed even more now. You feel like almost like a fossil … a dinosaur … you go in there, you're doing these old techniques and they're like, "What the hell are you doing?"
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Height: 6'2
Born: 12/9/1968
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Resides: Pittsburgh, PA
Sport: Wrestling
Event: Freestyle
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