PARIS, France — Team USA Olympian and Iowa commit, Kennedy Alexis Blades, had quite a Saturday as she worked her way towards the women's freestyle wrestling 76kg final round in search of gold in very her first Olympics.
Blades will be wrestling in the finals for Team USA after winning a semifinals match versus Kyrgyzstan's Aiperi Medet Kyzy in which she was able to get a point up on her opponent in both periods of wrestling. The final score was 8-6.
In her first match of the day against Romania's Catalina Axente, she put up a dominant performance, winning a victory by technical superiority as she put up 11 points to Axente's 0.
In the quarterfinal, she met some resistance in Team Cuba wrestler Milaimy de la Caridad Marin Portrille. In the tight match, Blades took her second win of the day with a final score of 4-3.
The women's wrestling 76kg final will take place Sunday, where Blades will take on Japan's Yuka Kagami for a gold medal.
Blades signed a national letter of intent to wrestle for the University of Iowa women's wrestling program in 2024 earlier this year according to head coach Clarissa Chun.
Blades, originally from Chicago, is no stranger to medals as she is a three-time world medalist. Back in 2020 she was runner-up in Team USA Olympic qualifying at the age of 17.
This year, the 20-year-old wrestler defeated 2020 Olympic medalist Adeline Gray in USA qualifying to punch her ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
