Kennedy Blades of the U.S. and Yuka Kagami of Japan, in blue, compete in their women’s freestyle -76 kg final bout at the Champ-de-Mars Arena during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
PARIS — For up-and-coming Iowa wrestler Kennedy Blades, winning the Olympic silver medal was the easy part.
The more difficult task is to make sure she doesn’t lose it.
“I hope I don’t lose it. Well, I can’t lose it,” says the 20-year-old from Chicago with a laugh, explaining that she doesn’t dare because she “accidentally lost” her other international medals – a U20 bronze and a U23 silver.
“I think there’s one in my pockets that I can’t find. And the other one, I just don’t know. I think that’s hard because once you lose, you’re just gone and you’re like, ‘Okay, let’s move on to the next thing.’ But I still have my junior world championship belt. So we’re going to keep this one safe. Maybe my parents will hang it up or something. I’m definitely going to give it to them because I don’t trust myself.”
In the gold medal match in the 76 kg class on Sunday, the unseeded newcomer from Arizona State lost 3-1 to the number 2 seed and 2023 world champion Yuka Kagami of Japan.
With over a minute left in the scoreless first period, Blades was pressed for time and failed to score, leaving Kagami with a 1-0 lead. Blades scored with a step-out just before the three-minute break to tie the match at 1-1 and take the lead on last-to-score criteria. But the decisive move of the fight came from Kagami, with a takedown at the rim with just over a minute to go for two points and a 3-1 lead. She fended off all further attacks from Blades until time ran out.
“She was definitely strong and I guess she’s a little smaller,” said Blades, who attended high school at Wyoming Seminary in Pennsylvania. “But yeah, her positioning was great. I mean, I knew before the game that Japan in general is very disciplined when it comes to positioning.”
“She was prepared for what I was going to do and I was prepared for what she was going to do. It was definitely a tussle. And it was an entertaining fight. I hope we put on a show for the crowd. That’s all I really want to do. But yeah, the result was pretty sad of course because I always want to be at the top. But honestly, at the end of the day, it was a battlefield – 76 kilograms for women is no joke.”
Blades decided to leave Arizona State when her training facility, Sunkist Kids, announced it was closing, and she officially transferred to Iowa just a few weeks ago.
Assuming she doesn’t lose the medal in the next week, she expects to bring it with her when she arrives on campus.
“School starts in about 10 days,” said the 2021 U20 world champion, who beat 2020 Olympic silver medalist and six-time world champion Adeline Gray to make the U.S. team. “So I haven’t even seen the campus or anything. So I’m going to go there and just start everything.”
“But at least it’ll be a nice refresher. Just a new team, good vibes, new coaches. It’ll be great. So, yeah, I think I’ll take this (silver medal) to Chicago first and show everybody because it’s pretty nice. It’s heavy. It’s shiny. But then I’ll take it to Iowa and take pictures and stuff. It’ll be cool.”
Medalists, from left, Kennedy Alexis Blades of the United States (silver), Yuka Kagami of Japan (gold), De La Caridad Marin Potrille of Cuba and Tatiana Renteria Renteria of Colombia (bronze) take a selfie on the podium during the medal ceremony in the women’s freestyle wrestling -76 kg at the Champ de Mars arena during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
When asked how this success could raise her profile as a role model in the sport, she said her approach is to simply keep trying to be “the best version” of herself.
“I’m just going to continue to grow as a person and as a wrestler and see where it takes me,” she said. “I hope I can show the younger generation, or even people my age who might want to join a wrestling club, that it really is life-changing and that all kinds of opportunities open up as you get older and start learning everything.”
Looking back on her Olympic experience, the first woman to win a state championship in Illinois said it was a challenge for her to have to wait until the final two days of the Olympics for her turn to compete.
“When Amit (Elor) wrestled on the first day of wrestling, I was already nervous the night before, like I was about to go out and wrestle. I was just like, ‘Oh my God, I have to try not to get tired now.’ That was definitely one of the biggest things for me, just trying to get in the mood and focus. I switched all my social media to my fashion account. So I didn’t watch any wrestling. Because when Amit and Sarah (Hildebrandt) won and won all the medals, the whole USA Wrestling blew up and everything, so I just had to really get in the mood.”
She added that she would relive the entire Olympic experience “over and over again.”
“Team USA, the crowd here, the love we get, even the love I get from Iowa. I haven’t even set foot on campus yet and they’ve supported me. It’s just an incredible feeling.”
And although her top priority right now is to get to Iowa to wrestle on the team, she already has one eye on the calendar as she looks forward to her next Olympic appearance.
“So, 2028 is LA next,” she said. “It’s so weird. I’ve been saying 2024 my whole life. And now we’re on to the next one.”
