3 Olympic champions who later pursued WWE careers ft. Kurt Angle

By Animesh Pandey

Modified Jul 10, 2024 05:06 GMT

WWE has made a mark of its own in professional sports. It has given platforms to many icons like Dwayne Johnson [aka The Rock], Dalip Singh Rana [aka The Great Khali], James George Janos aka Jesse Ventura as the list goes on.

However, not many people know that WWE has a unique profile: it has also given a platform to Olympic champions. On that note, here are some Olympic champions who switched from amateur to professional wrestling, and found unimaginable stardom:

3 Olympic champions who switched to WWE

#3 Ronda Jean Rousey [Bronze at Beijing Olympics 2008]:

Ronda Rousey [2nd from Right], a trendsetter for ages [Image Source: Getty Images]

Ronda Rousey has been a trendsetter. Before she found fame through WWE, she was a promising judoka, who had won a silver medal at the World Championships in 2007 in the women's 70 kg—[welterweight] category.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, although Rousey lost an opportunity to win the gold medal, she still created history by becoming the first American woman in the history of Olympic judo to win a medal. Her bronze was nothing less than gold.

However, she soon retired from the sport to focus on mixed martial arts, following which she was invited to WWE in 2018, and has never looked back since.

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#2 Gable Dan Steveson [Gold at Tokyo Olympics 2020]:

Gable Steveson, the champion with a difference [Image Source: Getty]

Gable Steveson was incidentally named after the Olympic champion Dan Gable, who won a gold medal in wrestling at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

Steveson lived up to the legacy when he entered amateur wrestling in 2015. He won both the Cadet World Championships, as well as the Junior Wrestling Championships, before achieving the ultimate glory at the Tokyo Olympics, where he defeated Geno Petriashvili of Georgia to win the Olympic gold medal in the super heavyweight [120 kg+] category.

However, Steveson chose professional wrestling over a promising career as an Olympic legend and soon signed up for WWE. He was only the second Olympic gold medalist to do so after Kurt Angle. He even participated for a full season, but soon gave up WWE by 2024, to sign a three-year deal with NFL's Buffalo Bills.

#1 Kurt Steven Angle [Gold at Atlanta Olympics 1996]:

Kurt Angle with the American flag after winning the Olympic gold medal [Image Source: Getty]\

You know him as an action star. You know him as the WWE legend. You also know him as a popular podcast host. But did you know that Kurt Steven Angle was also a decorated amateur wrestler who had won almost every tournament that came his way?

Angle is one of the four rare American wrestlers to have achieved the distinction of an amateur wrestling Grand Slam [where the wrestler wins the Junior Nationals, the NCAA Championships, the World Championships, and the Summer Olympics]. Before the Atlanta Olympics, he suffered a double whammy. Not only was his career under threat due to a neck injury at the U.S. Olympic trials, but also he lost his coach and Olympic legend, Dave Schultz, only months before the Games.

Yet, Kurt Angle didn't give up and advanced to the finals. He upset Abbas Jadidi of Iran to win the Olympic gold medal in the heavyweight category and didn't look back. Initially dismissive of professional wrestling, Kurt Angle became a fan of 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, because of which he joined WWE in 1998.