Kurt Angle talks wrestling ahead of Times Union Center show

More than 15 years after he won a gold medal in wrestling at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and after more than a decade of being one of the biggest stars in professional wrestling, Kurt Angle still has something to prove.

He wants to make the Olympic wrestling team again. And he wants — indeed, plans — to do it at age 43, six years older than any other man who has ever wrestled for the U.S. at the Olympics. (The record is currently held by Chris Campbell, who won a bronze in 1992.)

“People think I’m a little nuts,” says Angle, who is paying for his year of pre-Olympic-tryout training in part by making occasional appearances on television and at live events with TNA Wrestling, including a stop at Times Union Center in Albany on Thursday night. At TNA, which airs its main program, “Impact Wrestling,” on Spike TV, Angle has been a marquee name since 2006, after an eight-year career with competitor World Wrestling Entertainment.

“TNA has given me their blessing” to pursue the Olympic dream, he says. “I’m more of a part-time (pro) wrestler now.”

Although his TNA appearances are scripted, the matches’ extreme physicality and potential for injury are very real; one wrong move or bad fall in the ring could flatten the hope that’s been building since April, when Angle announced he intended to compete for a spot on the American roster for next summer’s games in London.

“I haven’t toned down my style in the (pro) ring,” says Angle, “but I toned down the danger level.” He has a long-term contract with TNA and intends to return to it full-time — before the Olympics if he doesn’t make the team, after if he does.

“If I don’t hit a certain number of (appearances), I’ll make it up the next year,” Angle says. “And if I don’t hit enough that year, I’ll work the fourth year for free. They’ve been very good to me and I’m very loyal to them. They want me to go for it. They’re not giving me this time off to sit on my ass.”

The young wrestlers with whom he’s training, some of them 20 years or more his junior, seem to respect his achievements as a collegiate and Olympic wrestler, even if the early successes came before they were born, he says. He’s not, he insists, looked at as an old man trying to reclaim glory after selling out his legitimacy for pro wrestling’s fame and riches.

“I get respect, because of what I’ve done and how hard I’m training now,” he says. “I’m one of America’s greatest Olympic wrestlers of all time, (and) I’m rated one of the greatest college wrestlers ever. Whether I succeed or fail, I believe they’ll all stand up and clap. They’ll say, ‘At least he tried; he did everything possible, and he really went for it.’ ”

At a glance
IMPACT WRESTLING TOUR
Featuring Kurt Angle
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Times Union Center, 51 S. Pearl St., Albany
Tickets: $20, $37, $52
Info: Tickets available at the arena box office, all Ticketmaster locations, (800) 745-3000 or http:
/ticketmaster.com