Olympic medalist Kennedy Blades brings ‘scary’ skill set to already star-studded Iowa women’s wrestling lineup

IOWA CITY — Kennedy Blades was starstruck.

Blades, about a month before her 21st birthday, was participating in the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony on the Seine River in Paris alongside many celebrity athletes on Team USA.

Stephen Curry was her “favorite.” Seeing that LeBron James was “overwhelmed,” she just took a “quick picture” with him. But then she saw him again and had to get another picture.

“I was just fan-girling the whole time,” Blades said.

Now, she is a star in Iowa City as the Olympic silver medalist competes for Iowa women’s wrestling in its second season of team competition — complete with an ovation from a Kinnick Stadium sellout crowd and even some of the same requests she had for her idols months earlier in Paris.

“Some people ask me for pictures. I’m like, ‘Of course!’” Blades said. “But I just get kind of shy because then the other students are walking like, ‘What is that? Who are you?’ … But any time anyone asks for a picture, I’m always here for it.”

The Kinnick ovation as Blades was recognized on the field as she wore her silver medal “reminded me a little bit” of the Olympic finals when it was “American flags everywhere” as she came out to the mat.

“Except it was like five times bigger,” Blades said of Kinnick. “So I was like, ‘Man, this is amazing.’ And I really felt welcomed with open arms.”

As evident by her Olympic bling, Blades brings a special skill set to Iowa’s already star-studded lineup. She was the 2023 U.S. Open champion and almost went to the Olympics four years ago at age 17, finishing as the runner-up at the 2020 Olympic Trials.

“She’s very athletic,” said Kylie Welker, Iowa’s reigning national champion listed at 180 pounds, of her new teammate. “She’s tall and lanky, and you don’t get a lot of tall, lanky girls in wrestling. So that’s a different challenge. … She’s technically sound as well.”

U.S. women’s Olympic coach Terry Steiner said this summer that Blades is a “generational talent that we just don’t see very often,” as reported by the Associated Press.

Iowa 145-pound wrestler Reese Larramendy was Blades’ training partner as she prepared for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Asked for the scouting report on Blades, one word quickly came to mind for Larramendy.

“Scary.”

“It hurt to be her partner, if I’m being honest,” Larramendy told The Gazette. “Lots of double legs. My ribs were sore for a while.”

Larramendy’s history with Blades dates far before their work together preparing for Paris. Larramendy and Blades — roommates in high school at Wyoming Seminary in eastern Pennsylvania — both described each other as “best friends,” with Blades tightly crossing her fingers to figuratively show how close they are.

“We would always keep in contact, pretty much talk every day and she would tell me how great the (Iowa) program is and stuff,” Blades said. “I was like, ‘Man, I would love to go there.’”

Then came the perfect opportunity for Blades to make a move. Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club — the club associated with Arizona State where she prepared for the 2024 Olympics — closed following the Paris Games.

“It was almost a blessing in disguise when Sunkist ended,” Blades said. “Of course, I would have loved to still be a Sunkist kid, but I knew I needed to make a change. And I knew I wanted to come here.”

The Chicago native almost came here a couple years earlier. When Iowa first started the program, she and her sister Korina were the first prospects to take a recruiting visit to Iowa City. Her “top three” were Iowa, North Central College and ASU’s Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club.

Unfortunately for Iowa, she chose the latter of those three options as she focused on the 2024 Olympics.

“I knew that the first year, everyone was redshirting, so I wasn’t sure how the competition would be here, and I knew that 2024 was only two years out,” Blades said. “So I just needed to make a decision, like, ‘All right, what’s the end goal? Is it Nationals? Is it just making the team?’ No, it was trying to win the Olympics.”

Now that her 2024 Olympic quest is complete and she is finally (and enthusiastically) a Hawkeye — she actually apologized in her interview because she “can’t stop smiling” — Blades has quickly acclimated to her new team.

“She's been part of the team and got to know new people on the team that maybe she didn't know,” Iowa Coach Clarissa Chun said. “She's been teammates with a few of our women that are already on the team. … It’s been great having her in the room.”

She and Lilly Luft ran a wrestling camp last weekend in Clear Lake, Luft said, and they have been “really big into doing our bible studies every week this year.”

“Getting to grow in our faith has been really amazing,” Luft said.

Blades joins a program that experienced plenty of success in its inaugural season. The Hawkeyes won national team titles at NWCA National Duals and the NCWWC National Championships. They also claimed six of the 10 individual national titles at the latter event.

“That’s got to tell you something,” Blades said. “I knew that there’s something right here, and I want to be a part of it.”

Now, she wants to be on the roster “when we win the next championships or when we break the record for having 10 champs” in the 10 weight classes.

Until then, she at least has the photos with LeBron and Co. to show off along with her silver medal.

“Everyone was like, ‘There’s no way you met him,’” Blades said. “And I went to show them the pictures. ‘That’s insane, Kennedy.’ So that was definitely an amazing moment.’”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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