Kennedy Blades loses 3-1 to Japan's Yuka Kagami for silver medal in Women's Wrestling 76kg final at 2024 Olympics

Kennedy Blades won silver at the Paris 2024 Olympics, falling to Japan’s Yuka Kagami 3-1 in the gold medal match at 76kg.

Blades, 20, was stalled by Kagami down the stretch. Tied 1-1 after the first period, Kagami took a shot near the edge of the mat to score the match’s only takedown. Kagami kept her foot in on the blast double and was awarded the two.

Despite multiple late shot attempt by Blades, Kagami’s defense was too much to overcome to Chicago native. She held on to win the gold for Japan, the country’s eighth gold medal in the sport.

Heading into the gold medal match, Blades was 3-0 coming off a 23-point performance in her three previous matches on Saturday. She won 11-0 in her opening bout against Romania’s Catalina Axente before being tested in the quarterfinal and semifinal matchups, respectively. Blades would come away with a 4-3 win over Cuba’s Milaimys Marin before overcoming a high-scoring 8-6 matchup against Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy — the 76kg weight division’s top seed — in the semifinals to advance to face Kagami for gold.

Kagami, 22, is a defensive wrestler and despite winning every bout during her Olympic stay, she scored 12 points across all of her matches. The difference — she didn’t allow a single point until the semifinal and leaves Paris having allowed just three points to be scored on her against Olympic competition. Previously, Kagami won the 2023 World Wrestling Championships at 76kg.

For Blades, she leaves her first-ever Olympics as a silver medalist. It’s a strong foundation for the young Olympian, who nearly cracked the Tokyo 2020 Olympics lineup but was the runner up and did not make the event. In the meantime, she went on to become the first female in the state of Illinois to win a state wrestling championship while competing against boys.

Most recently, she completed in the world championship in 2023 at 76kg, where she also finished with a silver medal. At Olympic trials in April, she defeated 2020 Olympic medalist Adeline Gray to secure her spot on Team USA.

Now that her stay in Paris is over, Blades will move on and focus her time with the Iowa Women’s Wrestling team. She recently transferred into the program from Arizona State after Sunkist Kids (where she trained in Arizona) shut down. She signed with Iowa five days before the Olympic Games were set to begin.