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Kennedy Blades

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Kennedy Blades
Personal information
Full nameKennedy Alexis Blades
Born (2003-09-04) September 4, 2003 (age 21)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Iowa
Height5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Weight76 kg (168 lb)
Sport
Country United States
SportWrestling
EventFreestyle
ClubSunkist Kids Wrestling Club
Medal record
Women's freestyle wrestling
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 2024 Paris 76 kg
Grand Prix
Gold medal – first place 2023 Alexandria 76 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2024 Zagreb 76 kg
World U23 Championships
Silver medal – second place 2023 Tirana 76 kg
World Junior Championships
Gold medal – first place 2021 Ufa 72 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2023 Amman 76 kg

Kennedy Alexis Blades (born September 4, 2003)[1] is an American wrestler. She won the silver medal in the women's 76 kg event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

Biography

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Blades is from Chicago, Illinois.[1] She and her younger sister, Korina, started taking Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes when she was four years old.[2] She later switched to wrestling at age seven, joining a small club in the area.[2] As there were not many girls she could wrestle against, she often trained against boys.[2] She won several championships competing against boys as a youth wrestler, including becoming the first female to win the IKWF Illinois state title, in 2016.[1][2][3][4]

Blades and her sister, also a wrestler, attended Wyoming Seminary in Pennsylvania, the first American high school to have a girls wrestling program.[2] She said that "because there weren't any women's high school wrestling teams in the nation, we had to travel around the world to get competition" – while in high school, she competed against wrestlers from countries including Japan, Russia, Estonia, Austria and Sweden.[2] Blades won the U.S. Cadet national championship in 2018, and the U16 national championship, U17 national championship, and Junior national championship in 2019.[1]

At age 17, Blades finished runner-up at the U.S. trials for the 2020 Summer Olympics, losing to Tamyra Mensah-Stock, who went on to win the Olympic gold medal.[3] After she graduated from high school, she joined the wrestling club Sunkist Kids in Arizona and enrolled at Arizona State University.[2] Blades was the gold medalist at the 2021 U20 world championship and later won silver at the 2023 U23 world championship.[1] She also won gold at the 2023 Ibrahim Moustafa Tournament.[1] In 2024, she defeated 2020 Olympic medalist Adeline Gray at the U.S. Olympic trials, thus qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics.[5][6] Blades won the silver medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in the women's 76 kg weight class.[7][8]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Kennedy Blades". USA Wrestling. July 6, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Madrigal, Ashley (April 7, 2023). "Blades of glory: Wrestling sisters have big dreams, including Olympics". Cronkite News.
  3. ^ a b Brunt, Cliff (June 12, 2024). "'Generational talent' Kennedy Blades, 20, seeks Olympic gold in women's wrestling". Associated Press News.
  4. ^ "Kennedy Blades". Team USA. April 18, 2024.
  5. ^ Hendricks, Maggie (May 17, 2024). "U.S. wrestler Kennedy Blades: 'The goal is Olympic gold'". Olympics.com.
  6. ^ Pritchard, Emily (June 13, 2024). "She had so much energy as a kid her parents put her in jiujitsu classes. Now this ASU student is going to the Olympics as a wrestler". KPNX.
  7. ^ Khalatyan, Rafael (August 11, 2024). "Wrestling: Two golds for Japan, one for Tazhudinov". InsideTheGames.biz. Retrieved August 12, 2024.
  8. ^ "Wrestling Results Book" (PDF). 2024 Summer Olympics. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 11, 2024. Retrieved August 12, 2024.
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