ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020017
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Our Eyes in Atlanta
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
note: below
There's only one thing running deeper than sweat in Hall H of the humongous Georgia World Congress Center.
Emotion.
Kurt Angle stood with his 220 pounds literally on center stage - that would be Mat B - at the Atlanta Games wrestling venue Wednesday night.
Angle's right arm was in the hand of referee Aduuch Baskhuu of Mongolia. So was what he had worked for the 27 years of his life.
The scoreboard numbers were 1-1. Then, Baskhuu raised the arm of the Pittsburgh wrestler, not the one of Iran's Abbas Jadidi.
A referee's decision unleashed more than one flood.
"I'm the proudest man in the world," said Angle, who was into freestyle bawling on the medal stand. "If I died today, I'd be a happy man."
It seemed somewhat odd, but timely, that Angle spoke of death in his moment of Olympic triumph. The memory of Dave Schultz hangs over the competition in the noisy, low-roofed wrestling hall, and not just for former U.S. teammates, but for the entire sport.
Schultz was an international ambassador for the sport in which he won a gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. He was killed Jan. 26 at the DuPont estate and Foxcatcher Team training facility in suburban Philadelphia, a crime for which longtime wrestling supporter John DuPont sits in jail, awaiting trial.
"Dave was the godfather of U.S. wrestling," said Angle, the lone U.S. Olympian with the Dave Schultz Wrestling Club. "He knew six or seven languages, and he learned them so he could communicate with everyone. The sport misses him. I miss him."
Angle, a 1992 NCAA champ at Clarion (Pa.) University, cried on the mat after his golden decision. He cried on the medal stand. He cried as he draped his medal over the shoulders of his mom.
"I gave the medal to my mom because she has put up with a lot of crap from me," Angle said.
He hugged teammates, friends, Games volunteers, dousing their shirts with sweat and tears. The packed house, filled with 7,000 consumed consumers - three mats, no waiting - saw one of the great moments of these Olympics.
"When I was on the stand, I was definitely thinking of Dave,'' Angle said. "I started crying and couldn't stop it, and then you kind of realize it's over.
"You train so long and so hard for something, and you get it. It started with stress and worry, and you end with happiness. To tell you the truth, I don't feel so good right now."
One person hugged was Schultz's widow, Nancy. She has founded the Dave Schultz Wrestling Foundation to aid the sport, and Angle's victory is the kind of promotion the project needs. In his piece of the country, western Pennsylvania, wrestling is bigger than Bruce Baumgartner. Elsewhere, it could use help.
Before Angle's triumph, the most-told wrestling tale at these Games surrounded - a long trip to be sure - 407-pound U.S. weightlifter Mark Henry, who announced he was signing a deal with the WWF.
So, Henry's going into entertainment. Well, so is Angle. The Pittsburgh wrestler wants to be an actor, but not on a mat. However, it's doubtful any audience will get caught up in one of his performances like it did Wednesday.
Twelve hours later, the crowds were back. The flag-waving continued. Schultz's wife was in the stands. When Baumgartner - a three-time Olympic medalist with two golds - stepped onto the mat, he was surrounded by respect.
Although matches on the other two mats continued Thursday morning, most attention turned to Baumgartner, who opened by bouncing Canada's Andy Borodow, 10-0, in three minutes.
Baumgartner carried the Stars and Stripes in leading the U.S. delegation into the stadium at the opening ceremonies two weeks ago. When he received that honor, voted by U.S. athletes, on top of winning the 1995 Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete, it brought needed attention to his sport.
Schultz's death needlessly did the same.
"Obviously, the emotions here help us," said Baumgartner, the head coach at Edinboro (Pa.) University. "You have to try to focus. You can't worry about the crowd. You appreciate it.
"I'm sure that, emotionally, there is some carryover from what Kurt and Kendall Cross [another U.S. gold-medal winner] did last night. In the Olympics, you have to be ready for every match. The major focus has to be your wrestling."
And sometimes, just wrestling with foreigners isn't enough. There are those emotions, of the present and past, to grapple with, too.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 linesby CNB