Source: Arda Ocal of The Baltimore Sun
Recently, former TNA World Heavyweight Champion and 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle talked with Arda Ocal of The Baltimore Sun about the IOC’s horrible decision to eliminate wresting beginning with the 2020 Olympic games. Below are some highlights from Angle’s comments which you can read in full by clicking here.
On His Reaction to Hearing That Wrestling Was Pulled
I was really in shock [when I heard the news]. It’s the oldest sport in the world. It’s like pulling the 100-meter dash out of track and field. It doesn’t make sense at all. To drop wrestling shows that the IOC has no tradition.
On Whether the Amateur World Championships Are Enough
That’s all I dreamt about. I didn’t have fun as a kid. I didn’t go out and go to the movies. [Wrestling] is all I did. I was a kid with a dream. I wasn’t going to let anyone stop me. I had a very selfish childhood. I’m wondering will these kids today still continue to wrestle or will they give it up because they won’t be in the Olympics?
Bonus Update from “The Hurricane” Gregory Helms: [When I heard the news], I immediately got hot. To me, wrestling is the ultimate of pure sports. There’s no equipment. It’s you against somebody else. That’s the essence of what the Olympics all about. With sports like gun shooting, ribbon dancing, horse riding, with all due respect to those sports, how could you even touch wrestling? There’s a long list of other [sports] that could disappear and people wouldn’t notice.
