Kurt Angle began his amateur wrestling career at the tender age of seven, moving on to win varsity letters in football and wrestling at Mt. Lebanon High School, where he was also an All-State linebacker. At Canon-McMillan High School, he was undefeated as a freshman wrestler. His sophomore year, he qualified for the state wrestling tournament, and in his junior year, he placed third in the state wrestling championship. He went on to win the 1987 Pennsylvania State Wrestling Championship as a senior.

Upon graduating high school, Kurt attended Clarion University in Pennsylvania, where he continued his rise through the amateur wrestling world. He became a two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I champion, a national runner-up in 1991, and a three-time NCAA Division I All-American. He also became the 1987 USA Junior Freestyle champion, two-time USA Senior Freestyle champion, and 1988 USA International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles Junior World Freestyle champion.

After graduating college, Kurt won a gold medal at the 1995 FILA Wrestling World Championships in Atlanta, Georgia. Following this victory, Angle began preparing for the 1996 Summer Olympics under David Schultz at Foxcatcher. Shortly after Schultz’s passing in 1996, Kurt joined the Dave Schultz Wrestling Club in Schultz's memory.

Kurt’s meteoric rise through the ranks of amateur wrestling culminated with a number of world-class achievements. He is a 1996 Olympic Heavyweight Freestyle Wrestling Gold Medalist, a 1995 Olympic Style World Champion, a six-time US National Champion, a two-time US Open Champion, and an inductee into the National Amateur Wrestling Hall of Fame, the International Sports Hall of Fame, and was the third recipient of the PSAC Award of Merit.