Rivera Wins Bronze Medal Match; Blades Settles for Silver on Final Day of Olympic Wrestling

The final day of competition is in the books from Paris and the 2024 Olympic Games (from a wrestling standpoint). The day was rather rough from an American perspective as the two wrestlers we had in action both lost their only matches of the day. 

Before anyone took the mat on Sunday, the United States received bad news as Zain Retherford was ruled out of the 65 kg men’s freestyle repechage after suffering a head injury during training camp and reaggravating it during his opening round loss to Rahman Amouzad (Iran).  

US stalwart Kyle Snyder was the first American to compete on Sunday and he was wrestling for a bronze medal in the 97 kg weight class. Snyder’s opponent was the only one to beat him in 2024, prior to this tournament, in Amirali Azarpira (Iran). 

Azarpira accounted for the only offense in the opening period as he got a takedown off of a reshot in three minutes filled with a handful of bloodtime stoppages. 

The second period started and Snyder controlled the positional battle leading to the Iranian being placed on the shot clock. When Azarpira didn’t score in the :30 seconds Snyder was awarded a point - making the score 2-1. Azarpira added two more points for step-outs to extend his lead to 4-1. An injury stoppage on behalf of Azarpira sort of killed the flow of the final period and he would win by a 4-1 margin. 

Also in action was Kennedy Blades who was wrestling for a gold medal in the 76 kg women’s freestyle weight class. Her opponent was the defending world champion, Yuka Kagami of Japan. Kagami has been known for her defensive prowess and that was on display against the dangerous Blades. 

Blades was put on the shot clock first and couldn’t score - making the match 1-0 in favor of Kagami. Before the break, Blades was able to take the lead as she shot Kagami out of bounds for a step-out point. 

The key sequence occurred in the third period when Kagami took a shot near the edge and was ruled to have gained the proper criteria for a takedown giving her a 3-1 advantage. Blades was not able to solve the riddle of Kagami’s defense while trailing during the final moments of the bouts. 

Blades settles for a silver medal in her first Senior World/Olympic level tournament. She has now won medals at the U20, U23, and Senior level. 

American collegiate fans got to see a familiar face come away with some hardware on Sunday as former Northwestern/Rutgers All-American Sebastian Rivera took a bronze medal at 65 kg wrestling for team Puerto Rico. 

In what had become a recurring trend, Rivera got behind Tulga Tumur-Ochir (Mongolia) early, but never let his confidence waver. Trailing 4-0, Rivera got a takedown and three turns from a trapped-arm gut to suddenly go ahead 8-4. Tumur-Ochir fought back with a four-point throw, which Rivera initially indicated he may want to challenge; however, his coaches told him to continue. 

That decision proved to be the right one as Rivera was in on a potential match-winning takedown at the buzzer that was ruled no score by the on-mat official. Still holding a challenge, Rivera used it at that point and the review showed he indeed finished the hold for a winning score. 

In the last two years, Rivera has made the world finals, and now, come home from Paris with a bronze medal from the Olympic Games.