Kennedy Blades landed one of many crazies throws in Olympic historical past on her run to the gold.
Throughout her opening spherical match Sunday within the 76g competitors in opposition to Cătălina Axente from Romania, Blades—a 20-year-old phenom from Chicago, jumped behind her opponent, grabbed a physique lock and launched Axente into the air earlier than bringing her crashing again right down to the canvas. The five-point suplex earned an enormous response from the Paris crowd because the throw ended the match with Kennedy successful 11-0 on technical superiority (a 10-point lead in freestyle ends the match).
Kennedy couldn’t have a good time, nevertheless, with Axente remaining immobile on the mat following the beautiful throw. Medical personnel tended to Axente, who was ultimately faraway from the ground on a stretcher the place she was taken to an area hospital for remedy.
Following that win, Blades defeated Milaimys Marin from Cuba in a good 4-3 rating to maneuver onto the semifinals the place she defeated Aiperi Medet Kyzy from Kyrgyzstan 8-6 to assert her spot within the gold medal match.
It’s a robust begin for Blades, who was the second youngest member of the U.S. Olympic wrestling crew behind solely 2024 gold medalist Amit Elor, who’s simply 4 months youthful. Blades is coached by Izzy Martinez, one of the crucial outstanding MMA coaches identified for working with quite a few fighters together with Jon Jones and Holly Holm.
Holm was in attendance on Saturday to point out her help as Blades seeks to change into the third girl from the U.S. crew to win gold following Elor and Sarah Hildebrandt.
Blades faces Yuka Kagami from Japan within the finals on Sunday.
