After making her mark at Iowa, standout wrestler Kennedy Blades is pursuing success on a much bigger stage
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Wrestler Kennedy Blades doesn’t recall ever being regular.
She spent her childhood dominating boys on the wrestling mat, beating them for championships all the best way as much as the state degree. And whereas individuals she grew up with did common issues two summers in the past, she went to the 2024 Paris Olympics and earned a silver medal at age 20.
It needs to be no shock then that her newest large transfer is unconventional. She has chosen to go away the University of Iowa with a 12 months of eligibility remaining to deal with her function as a star for Real American Freestyle (RAF), knowledgeable Olympic-style wrestling firm, and put together for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. RAF mentioned the 22-year-old Chicago native is the primary lady to go away faculty early to deal with Olympic-style wrestling as knowledgeable.
Kennedy Blades was USA Wrestling Women’s College Wrestler of the Year in 2025.Jimmy Naprstek / NCAA Photos through Getty Images
Blades, who identifies as Afro-Latina, is RAF’s middleweight champion. She is already the face of the corporate’s ladies’s division, a task she desires to maximise as ladies’s wrestling continues to achieve traction within the United States.
“At the end of the day, women’s wrestling is booming, it’s growing,” Blades mentioned. “But let’s see if we can spread it everywhere. And I truly believe in this company, Real American Freestyle, so I want to put my best foot forward.”
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, participation in women’ highschool wrestling jumped from 11,496 athletes in 2014-15 to 74,064 in 2024-25. Women’s wrestling additionally turned an official NCAA chip sport for the 2025-26 stretch.
Blades mentioned these components and RAF’s early success make the timing good for her choice as she helps push the game ahead.
“I feel like I should be a part of this at this time, right now, in the beginning, because that’s what I did throughout my whole life,” Blades mentioned. “And every time I took that big step, it was the best step I’ve ever taken.”
She can’t assist however draw consideration — she’s practically 6 ft tall, with an abundance of swagger. She’ll be within the highlight once more when she defends her chip at RAF 12 towards Diana Avsaragova on Aug. 22 in Cleveland.
She hears the critics. She is aware of within the period of title, picture and likeness, her selection to not return to highschool appears uncommon. Iowa and NIL, to some, appear safer than a professional league simply getting off the bottom.
But RAF mentioned in a information launch that it’s drawing greater than 250 million social media views per occasion, and the corporate will maintain an occasion outdoors of the United States for the primary time in July — indicators that it may have endurance.
Blades believes in her plans, similar to she all the time has.
“It’s OK to be abnormal, and it’s OK to just be yourself and not be understood,” she mentioned. “And I think that’s what I just have to remind myself every day, because the sport and my dreams are just something that, like, not everyone is trying to accomplish.”
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RAF co-founder Chad Bronstein mentioned Blades’ transfer is irregular in wrestling solely as a result of the trail didn’t exist earlier than; even the perfect wrestlers who completed faculty tended to enter combined martial arts.
“All we’ve done is created something that should have been available for the oldest sport in the world,” Bronstein mentioned. “So, it’s optionality. We’re not forcing anybody to do anything, and I think that’s the most exciting part about all this, is that we now have given the greatest athletes in the world the options that they deserve.”
Israel Martinez, RAF co-founder and Blades’ play-caller for a decade, is blissful to see the brand new alternatives his star pupil has.
“As her coach for a long time, this was not something we foresaw her being able to do,” he mentioned. “As a co-founder of RAF, I’m so proud we built the avenue where she was able to make this decision.”
There would have been little left for Blades to perform on the faculty degree. She was USA Wrestling Women’s College Wrestler of the Year in 2025 and accomplished her second consecutive undefeated nationwide chip stretch this 12 months. She fell wanting gold in Paris, and he or she feels the easiest way to be prepared for a run at it in 2028 is to deal with Olympic-style wrestling.
Martinez mentioned Blades is the suitable particular person for the second, as a consequence of her outgoing character and eagerness to tackle the function of ambassador.
“She’s amazing,” Martinez mentioned. “I think it’s her lifestyle. Her mentality comes from the way she lives her life — her beliefs, her faith. She’s very mature for a young lady. She’s embracing it, and she’s working extremely hard to build herself.”
At age 20, Kennedy Blades gained a silver medal within the ladies’s 76-kg freestyle wrestling competitors on the 2024 Paris Olympics. Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune / Tribune News Service through Getty Images
Blades desires ladies and women who comply with her to have extra alternatives, however as she succeeds, she expects extra challengers. That’s a key purpose she desires to deal with the very best degree of wrestling competitors forward of the 2028 Olympic trials.
“I think the competition is honestly getting harder, and I think that’s the best thing ever, because it forces me to grow as a wrestler and as a person,” she mentioned. “I have to switch my focus, I have to start looking at a different perspective in my wrestling — things like that.”
As she promotes the game, she embraces being a task mannequin for the numerous Black and Latina women and girls who inform her she has impressed them.
“They say, ‘I got into wrestling because I saw someone like you that looks like me, and I saw what you did,’” Blades mentioned. “Like, the amount of times I’ve gotten that comment is just insane because, like, I didn’t have anyone like that. I wish I did — I feel like it would have made it easier.”
Still, since she has by no means taken a standard path, she doesn’t need to begin now. She mentioned a lot of her achievements have come from a willingness to go towards the grain.
“If you guys have a different dream, go ahead and chase that dream, right?” she mentioned. “I just can’t tell you how many people thought that it [leaving Iowa] was a bad idea, it wasn’t smart. I’m leaving eligibility. … But when you make decisions that you think are best for you, it doesn’t have to make sense to everyone, right?”
Cliff Brunt has been a sportswriter because the ’90s, together with a run of greater than 20 years with The Associated Press. He is an Omaha North High Viking of Distinction who obtained Creighton University’s Alumni Merit Award in 2025.
