Wrestler Kennedy Blades brings home a silver medal in her Olympic debut: 'A huge accomplishment'

PARIS — Chicago’s Kennedy Blades won a silver medal Sunday to finish a remarkable Olympic debut and usher in a new era of U.S. wrestling.

Blades, 20, lost to reigning world champion Yuka Kagami of Japan in the 76-kilogram final. The 3-1 defeat marked Blades’ lowest-scoring effort over four matches at the Champ-de-Mars Arena.

“Honestly, I did want gold, but at the end of the day, it’s still an Olympic medal,” Blades said following the match. “I think it’s just a huge accomplishment still, with all the work that has been put in.”

Blades left the arena following the loss, with her head bowed and tears in her eyes. Her mood, however, appeared to lift considerably when she walked out for the medal ceremony a few minutes later and saw her family in the stands.

In that moment, she said, she thought about all the sacrifices her parents, Cindy Ramos and Saul Pulido, have made so she could chase her dream. She remembered all the weekends spent driving to tournaments and weeknights shuttling her to practices. And she recalled how — when she needed to find tougher competition as a teenager – they let her go to a prep school in Pennsylvania.

Now, she had an opportunity to honor that support with an Olympic medal.

“Those flashbacks were coming and I was just really happy,” she said. “I couldn’t stop smiling.”

It also heartened Blades, who is Afro-Latina, to see two other Latina medalists on the podium. Wrestling awards double bronzes, allowing third-place finishers Tatiana Renteria Renteria of Columbia and Milaimy de la Caridad Marin Potrille to both receive.

“I hope I inspire other Latina girls because, growing up, I didn’t have a role model who looked like me or had hair like me,” she said. “It would be amazing to start a movement.”

Blades knows about starting movements. The daughter of a Chicago police sergeant and an Illinois Department of Corrections employee, she began wrestling when she was 7 years old and spent her childhood competing primarily against boys.

In 2016, she became the first girl to win the Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation state title in an almost entirely male bracket.

Since her historic victory, however, IKWF has started a girls division, helping wrestling to become the fastest-growing girls high school sport in the state.

She said she hopes her medal sparks additional interest in girls wrestling.

“I try to be the best version of myself, not only for myself but for the younger generation or even people at my age that want to join wrestling. Because it really does change your life,” Blades said. “I’m very proud to represent IKWF because that’s where I got good. I hope I made them proud, too.”

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.

The silver medal will come with about $72,000 in prize money, an amount Blades said she was unaware of until after the match. She’ll likely earn even more for her name, image and likeness when she begins competing for the Iowa women’s wrestling team during the upcoming season.

She said she plans to make a donation to her church and invest the rest of her prize money. She recently started an LLC – it was announced with her signing to Iowa in July – so she hopes some of her training costs will be offset.

“I don’t know what to buy or anything, so I might as well grow the money,” she said. “I’ll probably keep about $1,000 for myself and spend it at Starbucks or something.”

Blades said she leaves in less than two weeks for Iowa, where she will join a Hawkeyes team in only its second season. She said she may bring the medal to show her new teammates, but she’s also afraid of losing it. She misplaced two of her world medals and hasn’t been able to find them.

“Maybe my parents will hang (the silver medal) up at home,” she said. “I’m definitely giving it to them because I don’t trust myself.”

Having tasted her first Olympics, Blades said she plans to be around for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. She has spent so long thinking about 2024, she had not thought about anything beyond that.

“It’s so weird,” she said. “But now we’re on to the next one.”

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