Six minutes is all Kennedy Blades has left to get wrestling’s ultimate prize.

The future Hawkeye, who committed to the Iowa program a month ago, cut her way through the bracket Saturday to reach Sunday’s Olympic gold medal match and secure at least a silver medal. With Spencer Lee securing silver on Friday, this is the first time since 2000 (Terry Brands and Lincoln Mcllravy) that more than one Hawkeye wrestler has medaled in the same cycle.

“It was really nice because I had the whole Iowa Hawkeyes behind my back going into the Olympics, me and Spencer Lee,” Blades said. “It was pretty great to just have two athletes in different genders.”

At 20 years old, Blades is looking to join Amit Elor and Sarah Hilebrandt as gold medalists for Team USA.

“(There’s) so many hours I’ve been putting into training, I want it to be worth it,” Blades said. “I don’t want to just go back home with a silver. I want gold because that was my mentality the whole time. I’m just going to go out there and have fun and just let it fly. No matter what happens, I’m still young, this is my first Olympics, so I don’t even put any pressure (on myself).”

For the sport’s biggest honor, Blades will have to defeat Japan’s Yuka Kagami, 22, the reigning World champion at 76 kilograms.

Blades’ gold-medal match will be in the one and only session of Day 7 of wrestling at the Olympics, the 4 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. window (CT). Keep it here for updates on when she is set to wrestle and how Team USA does as they wrap up a long week of wrestling.

Who is Kennedy Blades?

Kennedy Blades committed to the Hawkeyes in July following a stint with the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club out of high school and attending Arizona State University. She qualified for the Olympics in April by defeating Adeline Gray, a six-time World champion and a 2020 Olympic silver medalist. While Blades lost to Gray at the 2020 Olympic Trials, then at the age of 17, she got her redemption by beating one of the United States’ all-time best wrestlers.

Blades, 20, is one of the premier talents of the sport as a Junior World champion in 2021, but had never made a senior-level team until making the Olympic team.

“This was honestly my goal since I was seven. 2024 was definitely my goal,” Blades said. “I’ve never even made a Senior World team, so it’s just amazing to think I made an Olympic team.”

Before she even becomes a Hawkeye, she has won at least a silver medal at the Olympics. She’s the 12th Hawkeye wrestler to medal at the Olympics and with the exception of Iowa women’s wrestling coaches Clarissa Chun and Tonya Verbeek, she’s the first women’s wrestler for Iowa to medal at the Olympics.

Who is Zain Retherford?

The former Penn State star, who won three NCAA championships, is hoping to remain on top of the world.

He is the reigning World champion at 70 kilograms, but he’s the Team USA representative at 65 kilograms in Paris. He won a World silver in 2022 as well.

After losing in round one to Iran’s Rahman Mousa Amouzadkhalili, Retherford has been pulled back into the repechage and will have to win two matches to take bronze.

Who is Kyle Snyder?

We’ve had Michigan Wolverines compete, now it’s time for a Buckeye. The former Ohio State star, who won three NCAA titles, is Team USA’s representative at 97 kilograms. He has won three World Championships, an Olympic gold in 2016 and an Olympic silver in 2020.

He reached the semifinals, but fell short to Iran phenom Iran’s Bahrain’s Akhmed Tazhudinov and will need to win one match to secure bronze for the USA.

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.

© 2024 ABG-SI LLC – SPORTS ILLUSTRATED IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ABG-SI LLC. – All Rights Reserved. The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only. All betting content is intended for an audience ages 21+. All advice, including picks and predictions, is based on individual commentators’ opinions and not that of Minute Media or its related brands. All picks and predictions are suggestions only. No one should expect to make money from the picks and predictions discussed on this website. For more information, please read our Legal Disclaimer. Gambling content intended for 21+. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER.

Iowans may not know her too well yet, but Hawkeye wrestler Kennedy Blades is making a name for herself at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

The recent transfer into the Iowa women’s wrestling program put on a show in the first three matches of her run at the Olympics, going 3-0 and outscoring her opponents 23-9 to reach Sunday’s gold-medal match. Awaiting her there will be the winner of Columbia’s Tatiana Renteria vs. Japan’s Yuka Kagami.

While she hasn’t even worn a Hawkeye singlet yet, she’s already Iowa women’s wrestling’s first Olympian and Olympic medalist.

More: 2024 Paris Olympics wrestling live updates: Iowa’s Kennedy Blades makes gold medal match

Blades posted a highlight-reel victory against Romania’s Catalina Axente. First by hitting a blast double takedown for a 2-0 lead, followed by a four-point feet-to-back takedown for a 6-0 lead in the opening minute. After Axente closed in with a front headlock to try to limit Blades’ offense, Blades unleashed a grand amplitude throw on Axente, throwing her up and over onto her neck and back area for five points and an 11-0 technical fall.

Axente has to be carted off the mat as a result of that suplex.

Blades had a tough opponent next in Cuba’s Milaimy De La Caridad Marin Potrille, who beat Blades in July at the Spain Grand Prix by a 13-4 score. This time, Blades scored on a passivity clock violation on Marin Potrille, followed by a push-out and two-point exposure for a 4-3 win to avenge that loss and reach the semifinal.

In the Olympic semifinal at 76 kilograms, Blades took on Aiperi Medt Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan, a 25-year-old World silver medalist in 2023 and a World bronze medalist in 2021 (she also represented her country in the Tokyo Olympics). The two wrestled in a UWW rankings series match in February 2023, where Blades won by technical superiority (12-1).

This time, Blades kicked things off with a blast double once again, akin to a linebacker-like tackle for a 2-0 lead midway through the first period. Kyzy tied it quickly by grinding out a takedown with her upper body, but a push-out point gave Blades a 3-2 lead at the break.

More: Iowa Hawkeye women’s wrestling adds Olympian Kennedy Blades to roster

More: What to know about Iowa wrestling’s Kennedy Blades’ path ahead at the 2024 Olympics

In the second, Blades countered an attack and scored a go-behind takedown near the edge of the mat. It was challenged by Kyrgyzstan and confirmed by officials, so she led 6-2. Right from the whistle after the challenge, Blades went aggressive and scored another takedown to lead 8-2, but conceded a takedown and two-point exposure in the process to lead 8-6. From there, she locked back down and advanced to the gold-medal match.

If Blades wins on Sunday, it would be Team USA’s third gold medal at the Olympics, two of which would be coming from 20-year old wrestlers in Blades (if she wins) and Amit Elor (who already won). Sarah Hildebrandt won gold as well.

It’s a showing not only of Blades’ talent, but that of the entire Iowa women’s wrestling program. Not only by having a Olympic medalist with three years of eligibility on the squad, but also the talent across the board. Kylie Welker, Rose Cassioppi, Nyla Valencia, Brianna and Emilie Gonzalez, Reese Larramendy, Marlynne Deede, Felicity Taylor and Ava Bayless and recent transfer Macey Kilty all qualified for the Olympic Trials, and only two of them (Taylor and Deede) exhausted their eligibility this spring. Kilty reached the Olympic Trials final before losing to Elor and becoming her training partner for the Olympics.

While Blades was widely considered as one of the premier talents of wrestling, she had never made a senior-level team until the Olympics, casting a shade of doubt on how far talent alone would take her. She has proven any of those concerns to be misguided and is adding to an already strong presence in the Iowa women’s wrestling program.

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him atEmckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.