Kennedy Blades defeated an Olympic silver medalist to win the Olympic wrestling trials and punch her ticket to Paris. But there’s still something missing for her, and she can feel it.
“This whole time I was thinking about Olympic gold, and not just about being an Olympic athlete. There’s something missing. That’s why I still want to keep training,” said Blades.
Blades’ father introduced her and her sister, Karina, to the sport when they were young. The sisters, 10 months apart, were quickly drawn to combat sports. Despite trying others, they couldn’t help but return to wrestling.
Growing up, they fought against boys and girls in the gym. Blades said she felt respected from the start, after she and her sister really proved themselves.
“It was great that people started recognizing us because it would help us advance even further in the wrestling room,” Blades said.
She did the math at a young age: 2024 would be the year she would be eligible for the Olympic Games. Blades said that after watching the 2012 London Olympics, she told herself she would work her whole life to one day make it to the Games.
Blades remembers doing the math and saying, “2024 is the year I can win the Olympics. Perfect, that’s my goal.”
His coach, Izzy Martinez, said he and Blades have just one goal in Paris: a gold medal. He noted that her mindset and determination set her apart from other athletes.
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Blades, 20, has been with Martinez for years. They have worked together on both the national and international stage, competing all over the world. Blades refers to Martinez as “the Yoda of wrestling.”
She said they both hope to go home with a gold medal.
“She won’t break. She will continue and find a way to win,” Martinez said.
Blades said she knows she has the talent to be good; she just had to work on her mindset.
The night before the trials, Blades said she repeatedly wrote in a notebook a coach gave her: “I am an Olympic champion.”
“I couldn’t stop. I closed my book and the next day I did it again and again and again,” Blades said. “I think I manipulated my head into thinking, ‘You’re the champion. Let’s take what’s yours.’”
But after winning the trials, she still didn’t feel completely complete. She said she knew there was more to come.
That’s why winning a gold medal would mean so much to her. Blades said she believes it would fill the void that is missing.
“I know that when that happens, the satisfaction that I was missing after winning the Olympic Trials, that will be filled,” Blades said.
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