PARIS – Chicago native Kennedy Blades will wrestle for a gold medal Sunday following a stellar Olympic debut that included one of the best throws by any competitor – regardless of gender or weight class – so far in the tournament.
Blades, 20, went 3-0 Saturday to reach the finals of the 76-kilogram class, notching wins against three higher-seeded opponents. In her first match, she executed a textbook supplex for five points and closed out an 11-0 technical fall, wrestling’s version of the slaughter rule.
Her opponent, Catalina Axente of Romania, lay on the mat for several minutes after the throw and was later carried out on a stretcher. A statement released by the Romanian Olympic committee Saturday afternoon said Axente suffered a neck injury but there did not appear to be any fractures or nerve damage.
The daughter of a Chicago police sergeant and Illinois Department of Corrections employee, Blades began wrestling when she was 7-years-old and spent her early years competing primarily against boys. In 2016, Blades, then 12, became the first female competitor to win an Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation state title in a bracket dominated by male competitors.
Since her historic win, IKWF has launched a girls division and girls wrestling has become the fastest growing girls high school sport in the state.
Since her first state title, she has made four national teams in her age group and won the under-20 world championships in 2021. That same year, while still in high school, she was runner-up at the U.S. Olympic trials.
Blades stunned the wrestling world in April when she upset six-time world champion Adeline Gray at the U.S. Olympic trials. After making the team, she returned to suburban Addison where she continued to train with her longtime coach Israel “Izzy” Martinez.
Though her family lives on city’s southwest side, Martinez and USA Wrestling helped her find an Airbnb in Elmhurst, so she would have a short commute to his training facility and a coffee shop within walking distance when she needed to decompress. In addition to working out with the male wrestlers at Martinez’s gym on a daily basis, Blades also had female training partners flown in by the federation to help her prepare for Paris.
