How I beat Foxcatcher star: UK wrestler tells of his battle with Olympic champion
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Version 0 of 1. It is a chilling tale of the dysfunctional world of elite sport that is drawing audiences into cinemas across Britain and last week earned actor Steve Carell an Oscar nomination. Foxcatcher, the acclaimed new film, tells of the fate of the Olympic gold medallist Dave Schultz who, together with his equally successful brother Mark, became a celebrated American wrestling champion. It is an understatement to say that Schultz’s story does not end well, but this weekend one British man will admit to envying him. “When I think what Dave went on to achieve, I just wish I had been able to go on to train full-time like he did,” said Brian Aspen, 54, a former top bantamweight who once met, fought and beat Schultz at the junior world championships in 1974. “I would have improved just like he did if I had been able to get into a training programme.” Aspen, who lives in Westhoughton, near Bolton, did go on to become a great British wrestling star in the 1970s and 1980s and is the son of the country’s well-known wrestling talent Albert Aspen, now 80. His defeat of Schultz in Peru was one of Aspen’s proudest moments in wrestling, a sport that he continued to love after he retired in 1986, following the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. “Wrestling was very competitive then, with all the Eastern bloc taking part, but I enjoyed every minute of it. When I consider now that Dave went on to become Olympic champion, I realise my win back then was a big achievement. He was the big hope for his coaches at the time and I don’t think they could believe he had lost to me.” Aspen started wrestling when he was only six years old because of his father’s great interest in the sport, but as a young man he had to combine training with a day job in his family roofing company. “There was no money and no chance of sponsorship then, so I had to carry on with my job. But I was very dedicated and I think that is what carried me through and also what gave me the results. And, of course, I have seen the world for free,” he said. Aspen was horrified in 1996 when he heard that Schultz, played by Mark Ruffalo in the film, had been the victim of a violent crime. “I was shocked when I heard, although I hadn’t seen that much of him after we met in competition. He was a nice man, but quite hard as well, especially when I met him later. I first met Dave in the match we had and then again in 1977 and then in 1984 at the Olympics. “I also remember his brother Mark, now played on screen by Channing Tatum, but I didn’t really get to speak to him. It is 40 years ago and I was young when we first met, still at school. You don’t know which way a life is going to go. I didn’t know the whole story, so I did wonder what had happened.” Aspen was appointed an MBE in 2001 and his victory over Schultz is mentioned in the original Foxcatcher book. The former wrestler is bracing himself to watch the film this week. “I don’t think it will really damage the reputation of wrestling because in any case it is not such a big sport over here as it is in America. Over there it is promoted through the colleges and is a very big thing.” When the sport was briefly dropped from the Olympics in a 2013 decision – meaning it would not have featured in the 2020 summer Games – Aspen remained confident that it would return. “It is one of the oldest of the modern Olympic sports and I knew it would not be long until it was voted back in. There were too many big players involved – America, Russia and Iran.” Later that year the Olympic organisers relented. “It is a great sport because it challenges you physically, mentally and technically,” said Aspen. “You really have to have a bit of everything in you. It is a bit of a daunting thing, too, getting in the ring, one to one, like that.” But the Aspen family sporting tradition is not continuing, at least among the current generation. “My son liked football for a while, but wrestling was not his thing. And my daughter was not interested either, although nowadays it is a woman’s sport, too, and we are quite good.” |