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Iowa wrestler Kennedy Blades advances to Olympic gold medal match
Future Hawkeye wrestles for gold Sunday
PARIS — The newest member of the University of Iowa women’s wrestling team will show up for the team’s first practice this season with an Olympic medal.
It will be gold with one more win.
“We’re so close, I’m really excited,” Kennedy Blades said after winning her first three matches in the 76 kg bracket Saturday. “I mean, honestly, I’m just going to go out there and having fun because this day was a lot. Just one more sleep and then my body’s going to be feeling really good, although it is right now, but just the rest is going to make a huge difference, so I'm ready to just blow it out of the water.”
Because Blades — who signed a letter of intent to transfer from Arizona State to Iowa just a few weeks ago — has just the one match remaining, she said she might as well “just give it all I’ve got.”
“There’s just so many hours I’ve been putting into training, I want to be worth it, for sure,” she said. “I don’t want to just go back home with a silver. I want gold because that was my mentality the whole time. So yeah, I’m just gonna go out there and have fun and just let it fly. No matter what happens, I'm still young, this is my first Olympics, so not to even feel any pressure.”
The Chicago native said it has been an added bonus to be at these Olympic Games representing Iowa before she has even arrived on campus.
“Sunkist Kids (where she trained in Arizona), they shut down, so I knew I wanted to go somewhere else, and I was in talks with (Iowa) coach (Clarissa) Chun for a little bit,” Blades said. “So, I knew I was gonna go to Iowa. We were just figuring out all the money stuff, and then once everything was settled, I was like, ‘OK, I’ll just commit right now.’ So, it was really nice because I had the whole of Iowa Hawkeyes guys backing me going into the Olympics. It was me and Spencer Lee, so it was pretty great to have two athletes from different genders.”
Blades entered the Olympic 76 kg category unseeded, but lurking as a medal threat — having beaten six-time world champion and Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Adeline Gray at the U.S. trials to book her spot in Paris. She served notice to the field in her opening round-of-16 bout against No. 4 seed Catalina Axente of Romania that she is a rising star in the sport.
Blades scored a two-point takedown and a four-point takedown to lead 6-0 at the break. In the second period, Blades hit a back souplesse for five points to end the match. Unfortunately for Axente, she was hurt by the maneuver and had to be taken away on a stretcher after a 15-minute delay while she was tended to.
“When she got hurt, you never want to see that,” Blades said. “It’s just a match. We just want to go out there and have fun to see who’s the best. But when she was laying there, I did say a prayer to make sure she’s OK. She only has a few strained muscles. It was really nice of her coach to text my coach to make sure we knew everything’s all good. At the end of the day, we’re just one big wrestling family.”
In the quarterfinals, Blades edged 2019 U23 World champion and No. 5 seed Milaimys Marin Portillo of Cuba, 4-3. She followed it up in the semifinals with an action-packed 8-6 win over top-seed Aiperi Medet Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan, who is a 2023 World silver medalist and 2021 World bronze medalist. Medey Kyzy was fifth in the 2020 Olympics.
Blades will face Yuka Kagami of Japan in the gold-medal match on Sunday at approximately 6:20 a.m. (CT). Kagami, the No. 2 seed, is the 2023 world champion, and claimed a 2022 world bronze medal.
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