Kurt Angle wants to help United States athletes achieve their dream of reaching the Olympics.
Angle has partnered with USA Wrestling to raise money for the athletes on its men’s and women’s Olympic wrestling teams. In many countries, Olympic athletes are paid by their local governments to train and don’t need other jobs. However, United States athletes don’t have the same luxuries. Angle says the more he can help US athletes, the easier it would be for them to focus on their Olympic training regimen.
“Women’s wrestling is coming on really strongly. It’s getting real popular. The women dominate the Olympics. The last Olympics they had four medals. They did incredibly well. But the thing is,” Angle noted, “countries like Russia and China, and many other countries, they are athletes get paid by the government. They train and compete full-time. So, they don’t have to get jobs. They don’t have to work for a living.
“We don’t have that luxury here in the United States. Our athletes for the most part, they have to get jobs,” he added. “They have to train around their work schedule. And if they are working around eight to ten hours a day, they are only going to train, two, three, to four hours tops. And that’s not enough to be an Olympic athlete.”
Angle said the money raised isn’t going to make anyone rich, but it will be enough to allow them to focus on training.
“It will be enough to make ends meet. But they can focus on training and competition, and only that, for the next four years. So, I have a link that USA Wrestling gave me. It’s kurtangle.org. That link, you can tap on that link and donate whatever money you want to donate.”
Kurt Angle highlights differences between his college days and today’s Olympic athletes
Angle’s amateur wrestling career unfolded in the early 1990s under different circumstances than today’s competitors. For one, Angle notes, athletes that win a medal are paid much more by the Olympic committee than they were in his era. He also was doing fundraisers and getting sponsorships, which allowed him to focus on training.
“One thing that they do have [today] that we didn’t have back then when I won the Olympic gold medal, I got $35,000. That’s it from the Olympic committee. Now, I believe if you become a gold medalist in the Olympics, I believe you are getting either $250,000 or $500,000. So, there’s a lot more money in it for these athletes. But, at the same time, the athletes coming out of college, if they get jobs, they are not going to be able to train like they should in order to win that gold medal. So, they are not ever going to come close to that gold medal if they don’t get the proper funding they need to be able to train.
“Back when I was wrestling, I put on fundraisers. I did spaghetti dinner fundraisers, and I sold autographed photos, and I sold t-shirts, and I had sponsors that stepped up for me. And it worked for me. I made ends meet by doing that. And I was able to train 11 to 12 hours a day. And look what happened. I won a gold medal. So, we know it works. So, these athletes today, they are strapped. Because a lot of these athletes have to get jobs like I said before and it’s really difficult to be able to do both.”
Angle wants to do his part to make sure US athletes are as prepared as they can be. The United States has been able to dominate the medal count over the past 40 years, and Angle hopes that fundraising efforts can help it stay that way.
Kurt Angle on being open about his past issues
Kurt Angle has spoken publicly about his addiction issues, noting that he’s been very upfront about it. Angle says whether it’s an athlete or not, he does a lot of speaking engagements because he knows sharing his experiences will help others.
“I know people that are going to go through the same thing as me, and I don’t want them to do that. That’s why I speak freely about it. Because, I want them to know how dangerous it is. Once you get caught into it, it is almost impossible to get out of it, unless you get help. And you can’t do it yourself,” he pointed out. “That’s what I try to do for years and it didn’t work. And finally, I broke in. My wife said, ‘Listen, you either go to rehab or I’m leaving.’ And I didn’t want to lose my wife and kids so I went to rehab. And it was the best decision I’ve ever made. I’ve been clean and sober for 14 years now.”
Angle never got a chance to make money in college like today’s athletes do, thanks to programs like the NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) Program. He’s happy to see athletes getting paid what they deserve and colleges are realizing the competitors’ value. Angle says his youngest daughter, Nikoletta, is wrestling now too. It gives him a great amount of pride to know that she could potentially benefit from something like the NIL program.
“She’s gonna have a big future in wrestling. It makes me feel at ease that I know that she might end up getting paid to wrestle in college. It depends on how good she becomes,” Angle said. “But I think she’s going to be really good. And I think that’s a really cool thing to know, when you have kids that are going to be growing up and going to college. And that they might be having the opportunity to make money from NIL.”
Kurt Angle on the best part about being a ‘Girl Dad’
Angle has six children in total, two from his previous marriage to Karen (Jarrett) and four with his current wife, Giovanna. He says it can be challenging, but finds ways to relate with each of them, like watching wrestling with Nikoletta.
“So, [Nikoletta] and I are pretty cool together. We both like to do masculine things. We like to watch the boys wrestle instead of the girls, that kind of stuff. But I love being a girl dad. We just took our three daughters to Disney this past week,” he said. “It’s great to see their eyes light up when they go there. It’s like, these are my three little princesses, and I just love them very much.”
Learn more about Kurt Angle and USA Wrestling’s fundraising efforts here.
Watch our full interview with Kurt Angle below:
