Blades closes out Olympic Games with a silver medal

Kennedy Blades, shown at the recent U.S. Olympic Trials in April, earned a silver medal in her Olympic debut at 76 kilograms on Sunday.

Courtesy USA Wrestling

PARIS, France, August 11, 2024 – Kennedy Blades won America’s seventh medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Sunday by finishing second at 76 kilograms (167½ pounds) with a 3-1 loss to 2023 world champion Yuka Kagami of Japan at Champ-de-Mars Arena.

It was the final match of the Olympic tournament in Paris. It was an impressive Olympic debut for Blades, 20.

The only other American in action on the final day of the Olympics was three-time Olympian Kyle Snyder, who finished fifth at 97 kilograms.

Blade’s gold medal match was tied 1-1 after the first period. Blades was placed on the shot clock and did not score, making it 1-1 for Kagami. A Blades double leg shot ended as a step out to give the American an early 1-0 lead.

In the move of the bout, Kagami scored a takedown on the edge for a 3-1 lead. No more scoring occurred and Kagami became Olympic champion.

“She was definitely strong and I guess a little shorter,” Blades said. “Her positioning was great. I knew going into the match Japanese (wrestlers) in general, they’re very disciplined with their positioning. So I think that’s made it a little tough.

“I’m just going to go back to the drawing board and just you know start working my stuff again,” Blades said. “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 it was a fun match.

Kagami came into the match with four world championship medals. She won a world title at the Senior Level in 2023 along with two U17 titles and a U20 world title.

Blades was a 2021 U20 world champion, a 2023 U23 world silver medalist and a 2023 U20 world bronze medalist. She defeated 2020 Olympic silver medalist and six-time world champion Adeline Gray to make the U.S. Olympic Team.

Blades earned spot in the gold medal final with a wide-open 8-6 match over No. 1 seed and two-time world medalist Aiperi Medet Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan in the semifinals on Saturday.

In the quarterfinals, Blades edged 2019 U23 world champion and No. 5 seed Milaimys Marin Portillo of Cuba, 4-3. Blades opened the tournament with a powerful 11-0 technical fall over 2020 European bronze medalist and No. 4 seed Catalina Axente of Romania.

Blades attended Arizona State, where she trained with the Sunkist Kids. She recently signed with the University of Iowa and will begin with their women’s wrestling team shortly after the Olympics. She attended high school at Wyoming Seminary in Pennsylvania. Blades is a native of Chicago, Ill.

Snyder placed fifth at 97 kg, falling in a bronze-medal match to two-time U23 world champion Amarali Azarpira of Iran, 4-1.

Azarpira scored a first-period takedown on a re-shot, to lead 2-0 at the break. In the second period, Azarpira was put on the shot clock and did not score, making it 2-1. While Snyder took the attack, Azarpira was able to get two more step-out points for the 4-1 win.

Snyder was a 2016 Olympic champion and 2020 Olympic silver medalist. He boasts three world titles. By placing fifth, Snyder’s U.S. record streak of nine straight World and Olympic medals was halted.

Snyder was a three-time NCAA champion and four-time finalist for Ohio State. He was a Prep School national champion for Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Maryland, and graduated from Coronado High School in Colorado while training at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center. He is a native of Woodbine, Maryland.

Team USA finished with seven medals in wrestling at Olympic Games Paris 2024, with four in women’s freestyle and three in men’s freestyle.

This included gold medals by Amit Elor at 68 kg and Sarah Hildebrandt at 53 kg in women’s freestyle. Silver medals went to Spencer Lee at 57 kg in men’s freestyle and  Blades at 76 kg in women’s wrestling. Bronze medals were earned by Kyle Dake at 74 kg and Aaron Brooks at 86 kg in men’s freestyle, plus Helen Maroulis at 57 kg in women’s freestyle.

For Maroulis, it was her third career Olympic medal, a gold in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and bronze medals in Tokyo in 2020 and Paris in 2024. She became the first U.S. woman to win three Olympic medals in wrestling.

Hildebrandt became a two-time Olympic medalist, with her gold in Paris to go with her bronze in Tokyo in 2020. Dake won his second Olympic bronze medal, to go with a bronze in 2020 in Tokyo.

Content from USA Wrestling was used to compile this report.