After making her mark at Iowa, standout wrestler Kennedy Blades is pursuing success on a bigger stage

Wrestler Kennedy Blades doesn’t recall ever being normal.

She spent her childhood dominating boys on the wrestling mat, beating them for championships all the way up to the state level. And while people she grew up with did regular things two summers ago, she went to the 2024 Paris Olympics and earned a silver medal at age 20.

It should be no surprise then that her latest big move is unconventional. She has chosen to leave the University of Iowa with a year of eligibility remaining to focus on her role as a star for Real American Freestyle (RAF), a professional Olympic-style wrestling company, and prepare for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. RAF said the 22-year-old Chicago native is the first woman to leave college early to focus on Olympic-style wrestling as a professional.

Blades, who identifies as Afro-Latina, is RAF’s middleweight champion. She is already the face of the company’s women’s division, a role she wants to maximize as women’s wrestling continues to gain traction in the United States.

“At the end of the day, women’s wrestling is booming, it’s growing,” Blades said. “But let’s see if we can spread it everywhere. And I truly believe in this company, Real American Freestyle, so I want to put my best foot forward.”

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, participation in girls’ high school wrestling jumped from 11,496 athletes in 2014-15 to 74,064 in 2024-25. Women’s wrestling also became an official NCAA championship sport for the 2025-26 season.

Blades said those factors and RAF’s early success make the timing perfect for her decision as she helps push the sport forward.

“I feel like I should be a part of this at this time, right now, in the beginning, because that’s what I did throughout my whole life,” Blades said. “And every time I took that big step, it was the best step I’ve ever taken.”

She can’t help but draw attention — she’s nearly 6 feet tall, with an abundance of swagger. She’ll be in the spotlight again when she defends her championship at RAF 12 against Diana Avsaragova on Aug. 22 in Cleveland.

She hears the critics. She knows in the era of name, image and likeness, her choice not to return to school seems unusual. Iowa and NIL, to some, seem safer than a pro league just getting off the ground.

But RAF said in a news release that it is drawing more than 250 million social media views per event, and the company will hold an event outside of the United States for the first time in July — signs that it could have staying power.

Blades believes in her plans, just like she always has.

“It’s OK to be abnormal, and it’s OK to just be yourself and not be understood,” she said. “And I think that’s what I just have to remind myself every day, because the sport and my dreams are just something that, like, not everyone is trying to accomplish.”

RAF co-founder Chad Bronstein said Blades’ move is abnormal in wrestling only because the path didn’t exist before; even the best wrestlers who finished school tended to go into mixed martial arts.

“All we’ve done is created something that should have been available for the oldest sport in the world,” Bronstein said. “So, it’s optionality. We’re not forcing anybody to do anything, and I think that’s the most exciting part about all this, is that we now have given the greatest athletes in the world the options that they deserve.”

Israel Martinez, RAF co-founder and Blades’ coach for a decade, is happy to see the new opportunities his star pupil has.

“As her coach for a long time, this was not something we foresaw her being able to do,” he said. “As a co-founder of RAF, I’m so proud we built the avenue where she was able to make this decision.”

There would have been little left for Blades to accomplish at the college level. She was USA Wrestling Women’s College Wrestler of the Year in 2025 and completed her second consecutive undefeated national championship season this year. She fell short of gold in Paris, and she feels the best way to be ready for a run at it in 2028 is to focus on Olympic-style wrestling.

Martinez said Blades is the right person for the moment, due to her outgoing personality and eagerness to take on the role of ambassador.

“She’s amazing,” Martinez said. “I think it’s her lifestyle. Her mentality comes from the way she lives her life — her beliefs, her faith. She’s very mature for a young lady. She’s embracing it, and she’s working extremely hard to build herself.”

Blades wants women and girls who follow her to have more opportunities, but as she succeeds, she expects more challengers. That’s a key reason she wants to focus on the highest level of wrestling competition ahead of the 2028 Olympic trials.

“I think the competition is honestly getting harder, and I think that’s the best thing ever, because it forces me to grow as a wrestler and as a person,” she said. “I have to switch my focus, I have to start looking at a different perspective in my wrestling — things like that.”

As she promotes the sport, she embraces being a role model for the many Black and Latina girls and women who tell her she has inspired them.

“They say, ‘I got into wrestling because I saw someone like you that looks like me, and I saw what you did,’” Blades said. “Like, the amount of times I’ve gotten that comment is just insane because, like, I didn’t have anyone like that. I wish I did — I feel like it would have made it easier.”

Still, since she has never taken a normal path, she doesn’t want to start now. She said many of her achievements have come from a willingness to go against the grain.

“If you guys have a different dream, go ahead and chase that dream, right?” she said. “I just can’t tell you how many people thought that it [leaving Iowa] was a bad idea, it wasn’t smart. I’m leaving eligibility. … But when you make decisions that you think are best for you, it doesn’t have to make sense to everyone, right?”