Kennedy Blades, of the United States, and Japan’s Yuka Kagami, in blue, compete in their women’s freestyle 76kg final wrestling match, at Champ-de-Mars Arena, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
PARIS — For incoming Iowa wrestler Kennedy Blades, winning the Olympic silver medal was the easy part.
The tougher task is to make sure she doesn’t lose it.
“I hope I don’t lose it. Well, I can’t lose it,” the 20-year-old from Chicago said with a laugh, explaining she doesn’t trust herself because she “accidentally lost” her other international medals — a U20 bronze and a U23 silver.
“I think one is inside of my bags that I can’t find. And then the other one, I just don’t know. I think it’s hard, because once you lose, you just kind of phase out and then you’re like: ‘All right, let’s go to the next thing.’ But I do still have my junior world belt. So, we’re going to keep this one safe. Maybe my parents will hang it or something. I’m going to give it to them for sure because I don’t trust myself.”
In Sunday’s gold medal match in the 76 kg category, the unseeded transfer from Arizona State was defeated, 3-1, by No. 2 seed and 2023 world champion Yuka Kagami of Japan.
Over a minute into a scoreless first period, Blades was placed on the clock and did not score, to make it 1-0 for Kagami. Blades scored on a step-out to make it 1-1 shortly before the three-minute break, taking the lead on the criteria of scoring last. But the decisive move of the bout came from Kagami with a little over a minute remaining in the match, when she scored a takedown on the edge for two points and a 3-1 lead. She fended off all further attacks by Blades until the clock ran out.
“She was definitely strong, and I guess a little shorter,” said Blades, who attended high school at Wyoming Seminary in Pennsylvania. “But yeah, her positioning was great. I mean, I knew that going into the match that Japan in general, they’re very disciplined with their positioning.
“She was ready for what I was going to do, and I was ready for what she was going to do. It was definitely a scramble. And it was a fun match. I hope we put on a show for the crowd. That’s all I really want to do. But yeah, it was pretty sad about the outcome, of course, because I do want to be on top always. 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. She formally joined Iowa just a few weeks ago.
Assuming she does not lose the medal over the next week or so, she said she expects to bring it with her when she arrives on campus.
“School starts in like 10 days,” said the 2021 U20 world champion, who defeated 2020 Olympic silver medalist and six-time world champion Adeline Gray to make the U.S. team. “So, I haven’t even seen campus or anything. So, I’m going to get there and just start with everything.
“But at least it’s going to be a nice, like, refresher. Just have a new team, happy vibes, new coaches. It’s going to be great. So yeah, I think I’ll bring this (silver medal) to Chicago first and show everyone, because it’s pretty nice. It’s heavy. It’s shiny. But then I’ll bring it to Iowa and take pictures and stuff. It’ll be cool.”
Medalists, from left, Kennedy Alexis Blades, of the United States, silver, Japan’s Yuka Kagami, gold, Cuba’s De La Caridad Marin Potrille, Colombia’s Tatiana Renteria Renteria, bronze, take selfie on the podium during the medal ceremony for women’s freestyle 76kg wrestling, at Champ-de-Mars Arena, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
When asked how this achievement might boost her profile as a role model representing the sport, she said her approach is to just keep trying “to be the best version” of herself.
“I’ll just continue to grow as a person, as a wrestler and see where it takes me,” she said. “I hope I can show the younger generation, or even people at my age that might want to join (a wrestling club), that it really just changes your life, and all the opportunities come as you grow and you start to learn everything.”
Reflecting on what she learned from her Olympic experience, the first girl to win an Illinois state championship over boys said she found it very challenging to have to wait until the last two days of the Olympics to finally get her turn to compete.
“When Amit (Elor) wrestled (the first day of wrestling), the night before I already felt the jitters as if I was going to go and wrestle. I was like: ‘Oh my gosh, I have to try to not get tired right now.’ That was definitely one of the biggest things for me, was just trying to dial in and focus. I switched all of my social media to my fashion account. So, I didn’t see any wrestling. Because once Amit won and Sarah (Hildebrandt) won, and everyone is medaling, the whole USA Wrestling is blowing up and everything, so I just had to really dial in.”
The overall Olympic experience, she added, is one she “would have over and over again.”
“Team USA, the crowd here, the love that we get, even the Iowa love that I get, I haven’t even stepped foot on campus and they were supporting me. It’s just an amazing feeling.”
And even though getting to Iowa to wrestle on the team is her priority right now, one eye already is on the calendar as she looks forward to her next Olympic appearance.
“So, 2028 L.A. is next,” she said. “That’s so weird. I’ve been saying 2024 my whole life. And now already we’re at the next one.”
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Publish date : 2024-08-11 07:23:00
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