During a recent episode of The Kurt Angle Show, Angle spoke on how he never considered pulling out of the Olympics despite having a broken neck. Here’s what he had to say:
I never thought about quitting. Everything was about doing what I had to do to get back. The doctor told me that I would have to take off a month of wrestling and that I couldn’t wrestle because it would do further damage to my neck. He said I could do limited weight training and conditioning, but I had to stay off the mats for a good month to let my neck heal. He gave me a healing agent – non-steroid because you can’t have steroids in the Olympics because you get tested all the time – and it helped tremendously. It didn’t completely heal my broken neck, but it brought down the swelling and I could start feeling my fingers again. His game plan was to go to the Olympic trials with a doctor, and he would stick me with 12 shots of novocaine in the neck five minutes before each match. I would do that, and I couldn’t feel my neck. It actually worked. I was worried about my neck the whole time, then when I got shot up, like a racehorse, I didn’t feel it anymore. I was like, ‘OK, I can wrestle like this.’ It worked out, but an hour after the match was over, I was in excruciating pain again. It was a really difficult situation for me, and I knew I was doing further damage to my neck.
You can listen HERE.
Credit: The Kurt Angle Show. H/T 411Mania.