Don’t forget to check the water quality reports if you head to the beach this weekend. More than a few beaches are not recommended for swimming.

A total of 13 beaches are not recommended for swimming this week. High E. coli levels were reported at 12 beaches and high algal toxin levels were reported at two.

Wondering how can you check up on water monitoring, beach classifications and know what locations are open or closed? Iowa Department of Natural Resources tracks it all and updates the public weekly on its website and using a phone hotline at 515-725-3434.

The DNR collects weekly samples at 39 state-owned swimming beaches to determine the public’s risk of coming in contact with waterborne diseases. Testing starts a week prior to Memorial Day and runs through Labor Day. 

What Iowa beaches are not recommended for swimming?

Backbone Lake

• Beach classification: Vulnerable
• Last test date: July 24

Beeds Lake

• Beach classification: Vulnerable
• Last test date: July 23

Black Hawk Lake

• Beach classification: Less vulnerable
• Last test date: July 23

Blue Lake

• Beach classification: Less vulnerable
• Last test date: July 23

Denison Beach

• Beach classification: Less vulnerable
• Last test date: July 23

George Wyth Lake

• Beach classification: Vulnerable
• Last test date: July 24

Lake Ahquabi

• Beach classification: Less vulnerable
• Last test date: July 24

Lake Darling

• Beach classification: Vulnerable
• Last test date: July 24

Lake of Three Fires

• Beach classification: Less vulnerable
• Last test date: July 24

Nine Eagles Lake

• Beach classification: Vulnerable
• Last test date: July 23

Pleasant Creek Lake

• Beach classification: Less vulnerable
• Last test date: July 24

Rock Creek Lake

• Beach classification: Less vulnerable
• Last test date: July 24

Union Grove Lake

• Beach classification: Vulnerable
• Last test date: July 24

West Okoboji Lake

• Beach classification: Vulnerable
• Last test date: July 24

What Iowa beaches have a special status?

Lake Keomah: Monitoring by DNR has been suspended for the 2024 season. The DNR expected to start draining the lake on July 9 for a major renovation and water quality improvement project that will last until spring 2026.

What Iowa beaches have improved to ‘OK for swimming’?

Three beaches previously considered “not recommended for swimming” in Week 9 data, posted on July 19, are now OK for swimming:

• Pheasant Creek Beach
• Emerson Bay Beach
• Denison Beach

How does the Iowa DNR classify Iowa’s beaches based on their water quality?

DNR officials classify state park beaches into one of three categories annually based on their history of bacteria results in recent years:

Vulnerable: Beaches are considered vulnerable when the geometric mean standard is exceeded in three or more of the five most recent sampling seasons.

Transitional: The beach’s geometric mean standard is exceeded in two or fewer sampling seasons of the five most recent years of monitoring and was listed as “vulnerable” in the past monitoring seasons.

Less vulnerable: The beach’s geometric mean standard is exceeded in two or fewer sampling seasons of the five most recent years of monitoring and was listed as “transitional” or “less vulnerable” in past monitoring seasons.

Victoria Reyna-Rodriguez is a general assignment reporter for the Register. Reach her at vreynarodriguez@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter @VictoriaReynaR.

It was never a matter of if for United States Olympian and recent Iowa commit Kennedy Blades, but a matter of when.

Blades is one of the premier talents in the United States’ pool of youth wrestlers. She made waves initially by becoming the first girl to win a boys state championship in the state of Illinois while in high school, before cementing her status as an elite wrestler by reaching the U.S. Olympic Trials best-of-three finals at the age of 17.

Blades’ opponent in the finals was none other than Adeline Gray, a six-time World champion who had set the standard for women’s wrestling in the U.S. When Gray won her first World title, Blades was just 9, and Gray continued her career in the most dominant and consistent way possible.

Blades came up short, losing to Gray (who went on to win silver in the 2020/21 Tokyo Olympics). At that moment, Blades was not quite up to the task.

Fast forward to today. Blades has beaten Gray once (at the 2023 U.S. Open) but lost to her again at Final X. Maybe the torch had been passed, but there was enough doubt that it hadn’t and that Gray may have one more Olympic run in her.

This time at the Olympic Trials at age 20, Blades left little doubt, rolling through to the Olympic Trials finals once again by winning three matches by a total score of 33-1. Facing Gray once again, Blades triumphed with an 11-6 and an 8-3 decision over Gray to become an Olympian.

“It didn’t go my way when I was 17, but I knew I could beat her because I did it before so it’s obviously possible,” Blades said. “I just trusted my training and I literally just said, ‘full send.’”

Now, the Iowa women’s wrestling program has its first Olympian after Blades made her way to Iowa City a couple months after clinching the spot. A dream has been realized as Blades now carries the torch as one of the country’s best wrestlers.

“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.”

Here’s everything you need to know about Blades’ upcoming test, from her opponents to when she will wrestle.

Opponents in Kennedy Blades’ bracket

Blades showed she is capable of beating anyone in the world with her wins over Gray, but it doesn’t get any easier when she arrives in Paris.

Aiperi Medt Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan is the No. 1 seed at 76 kilograms, a 25-year-old World silver medalist in 2023 and a World bronze medalist in 2021. She thrashed Gray at the Zagreb Open in Croatia in a 10-0 technical fall. She’s wrestled in six World Championships prior to making this year’s Olympic team.

The 2023 World champion at 76 kilograms, and perhaps the favorite in Paris, is Yuka Kagami of Japan. At age 23, she is a World champion and a World bronze medalist. Japan is the top women’s wrestling country in the world.

No. 2 seed Kagami is followed by No. 3 seed Tatiana Renteria of Columbia, a World bronze medalist in 2023.

Rounding out the top five seeds are Catalina Axente of Romania and Milaimys Marin of Cuba. Both took fifth in their respective weight classes at the World Championships a year ago. Mari defeated Blades at the Spanish Grand Prix this summer by a 13-4 score, so there will need to be a game-plan adjustment for Blades if these two face off again.

There also are three other former Olympians in this field in Nigeria’s Hannah Rueben (14th in 2016), Tunisia’s Zaineb Sghaier (16th in 2020) and Turkey’s Yasemin Adar Yigit (bronze medalist in 2020). Of those three, only Rueben is seeded at No. 6.

Combine those with former World medalists in Canada’s Justina Di Stasio (World champion in 2018) and Mongolia’s Davaanasan Enkh Amar (World silver medalist in 2023), this is a field full of experienced and talented wrestlers.

Blades has as much talent as anyone in the world as an offensive dynamo, but the question will be whether her talent will show through again as it did at the Olympic Trials or if she’ll need more experience to compete at an Olympic level.

Full field of wrestlers in 76-kilogram bracket

• No. 1 Aiperi Medt Kyzy (Kyrgyzstan)
• No. 2 Yuka Kagami (Japan)
• No. 3 Tatiana Renteria (Columbia)
• No. 4 Catalina Axente (Romania)
• No. 5 Milaimys Marin (Cuba)
• No. 6 Hannah Rueben (Nigeria)
• No. 7 Justina Di Stasio (Canada)
• No. 8 Bernadett Nagy (Hungary)
• Yuliana Yaneva (Bulgaria)
• Juan Wang (Chia)
• Genesis Reasco Valdez (Ecuador)
• Reetika (India)
• Davaanasan Enkh Amar (Mongolia)
• Zaineb Sghaier (Tunisia)
• Yasemin Adar Yigit (Turkey)
• Kennedy Blades (United States)

What is repechage?

Repechage is a French word meaning a second chance, and it will be talked about a lot in Paris.

Fans who watched the Last Chance Qualifier that Iowa’s Spencer Lee competed in to qualify for the Olympics may recall what repechage is, but in case this is new to you, here’s an explainer:

Repechage is the consolation-bracket format the Olympics will use. Unlike the traditional wrestleback format seen at high school and collegiate levels here in the U.S., only the athletes who lost to the gold-medal finalists of the tournament will get another shot in the consolations to take as high as third. In other words, a bracket is created comprised of every wrestler who lost to a finalist.

Losers of the semifinal matches get a bye to the semifinals of the repechage, where four other wrestlers are remaining for a chance at bronze. Winners of those semifinal matches will then wrestle for bronze.

When will Kennedy Blades wrestle at Olympics?

Here are the session times for Kennedy Blades’ matches. Times aren’t an exact science here, but these are the scheduled session times via the Olympics. Blades would wrestle in the repechage matches on Aug. 11 only if she were to lose on Aug. 10 to a gold-medal round finalist as previously mentioned.

All times listed are CT.

• Aug. 10 from 4 a.m to 6:30 a.m: Preliminary rounds and Quarterfinals
• Aug. 10 from 11:15 a.m to 3 p.m: Semifinals
• Aug. 11 from 4 a.m to 7:30 a.m: Repechage
• Aug. 11 from 4 a.m to 7:30 a.m: Medal matches

How to watch Olympic Wrestling

Wrestling will be broadcast live on NBC, as well as being streamed and replay-able on Peacock.

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

DES MOINES, Iowa — A federal judge has temporarily blocked part of the Biden Administration’s new Title IX rules from going into effect here in Iowa.

For now, Iowa schools and universities who receive federal funding won’t have to comply with the new Title IX rules.

The Biden Administration’s Title IX rules were set to take effect August 1 and would have expanded protections against sex discrimination and sexual harassment.

Dozens of Republican-led states criticized the new rules for including protections when it comes to gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination.

“The pushback on it was that this would allow biological males to identify as female into women’s spaces,” Tim Hagle a political professor at UI said. “Locker rooms, restrooms, things of that nature.”

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined five other states in suing the Biden Administration back in May. They cited concerns that a few of Iowa’s laws could be at risk. Specifically, one that requires students use the bathroom according to their sex assigned at birth and another that prohibits transgender girls from playing girls sports.

“Today’s victory delivers a major blow to the Biden-Harris Administration’s war on women and protects young women all across the country,” Bird said. “Biden and Harris’s woke gender ideology mandate seeks to abolish more than 50 years of landmark protections that women spent centuries fighting for. No schoolgirl should be robbed of the opportunity to compete and succeed in the sports they love or be forced to share restrooms and shower spaces with boys. I will continue fighting protect opportunity and privacy for young women across the country and to make this win permanent.”

Iowa Sen. Zach Wahls (D-Coralville) already opposed both of the those GOP backed law, said the lawsuit is unnecessary.

“I’m very troubled by the decision that this is what Republican politicians are focused on and I think it’s a misrepresentation of the priorities Iowans say they care about,” Sen. Wahls said.

A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Education said they’re reviewing the recent ruling, but the department is standing by the final regulations and will continue to fight for every student.

“Obviously we’re going through a process now as a country,” Sen. Wahls said. “Trying to figure out how do we support protect kids who are a little different from their classmates and their peers and I think that we should be erring on the side of protecting those kids who, again, are already facing a lot of hardship in life.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds also applauded the federal judges decision in a statement on Thursday.

“Another federal judge has blocked the Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to apply Title IX protections intended for girls to biological boys who identify as girls.,” Gov. Reynolds said. “The definitions of “sex” and “gender identity” are different, just as biological males and females are different. I’m proud that Iowa is part of this lawsuit and I’ll never stop defending the rights of women of all ages.”