Kennedy Blades
American freestyle wrestler (born 2003)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kennedy Alexis Blades (born September 4, 2003)[1] is an American wrestler. She currently competes in the middleweight division of Real American Freestyle (RAF), where she is the current RAF Women's Middleweight Champion.
 Blades at the 2025 Zagreb Open | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Kennedy Alexis Blades | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | September 4, 2003 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | University of Iowa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 76 kg (168 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Country |  United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Wrestling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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She won the silver medal in the women's 76 kg event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. She also won a bronze medal in the women's 68 kg event at the 2025 World Championships.
Biography
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 Adeline Gray, who went on to win the Olympic silver 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 silver medalist Adeline Gray at the U.S. Olympic trials, thus qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics where she won the silver medal.[5][6] Blades won the silver medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in the women's 76 kg weight class, which was the United States's 1,000th silver medal.[7][8] She transferred to the University of Iowa in July 2025.[9]
Blades announced in June 2026 that she was leaving Iowa early to commit to Real American Freestyle full-time and prepare for the 2028 Summer Olympics.[10]
Championships and accomplishments
Freestyle wrestling
- NCAA
- 2026 NCAA Women’s Wrestling Champion - 160 lbs.[11]
- Real American Freestyle
- RAF Women's Middleweight Champion (One time, current)
- Two successful title defenses
- RAF Women's Middleweight Champion (One time, current)
- USA Wrestling
- 2025 Anthony-Maroulis Trophy[12]
