Olympian Miles Chamley-Watson brings talent to fencing

Miles Chamley-Watson doesn’t roll like other athletes in fencing, his relatively low-powered Olympic sport. The American medal hopeful at the Paris Olympics, for example, returned home for a week in May after a competition in Shanghai – the US team won gold in the team foil event – ​​before jetting off to Monaco to watch the one of your best friends, global colleague. the sportsman trotter Lewis Hamilton, races in the event that is the jewel in the crown of Formula 1, the Monaco Grand Prix. He returned to the US to prepare for the Olympics, before traveling to Paris at the end of June to attend Vogue World, a day-long fashion celebration at Place Vendôme that also featured the likes of Bad Bunny, Gigi Hadid and Serena and Venus Williams.

From Paris, Chamley-Watson, 34, took the fight to Peru, where her North American team again took first place in foil. “I don’t tell all my teammates all the things I do because it’s unreliable,” says Chamley-Watson. “I don’t want to look like an idiot.”

Most fencers, especially in the US where the government does not subsidize the sport, struggle to make a living pursuing their passion. But Chamley-Watson, who stands 6ft 1in, is covered in tattoos and has worked as a model to supplement his income, has brought a rare touch of celebrity flair to his sport. It has attracted a number of A-list sponsors such as Nike, Red Bull, Richard Mille, Mercedes and AirBnB. He just signed with Tinder. “Since tattoos are my thing, as you can see,” he said in a cheeky tone to the dating app on which he shows off his body art, “I might be willing to get one to match. Who knows?”

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He has over 421,000 followers on Instagram. In comparison, American Lee Kiefer, gold medalist in Tokyo Olympic fencing, has around 49 thousand followers; Her husband, Gerek Meinhardt, a two-time U.S. Olympic fencing medalist, claims about 32,000. Chamley-Watson’s Instagram handle is @fencer. “I like it,” he says, “because people say, ‘When you think about sports, you always think about Miles.’”

Chamley-Watson, the first American to win an individual fencing gold medal at a world championship — he accomplished that feat in 2013 — picked up a sword for the first time as punishment. He moved from London to New York City with his mother and stepfather when he was about 10 years old, and after misbehaving in class, his mother made him take up a sport – fencing, tennis or badminton – after school as an outlet for his excess energy. “I immediately fell in love with it, because you put the mask on, you put the foil on your hand, you feel like a little superhero,” says Chamley-Watson.

“Fencing is a lot like chess and boxing, where you have to react but also think about the future,” he says. “It’s a beautiful kind of synchronized dancing.”

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He says that after taking up fencing, he had a “Bruce Wayne to Batman” moment on the New York subway, when the quick reflexes he learned from the sport helped him wrest a knife from a mugger’s hand and throw it out of the way. floor. train. (He is releasing a graphic novel after the Olympics recounting the incident.) The moment made him more excited for the duel. “There’s nothing more exciting than waking up and doing what you love,” he says.

Chamley-Watson made her first Olympics in London in 2012 and won a bronze medal in team foil at the Rio Games. (In foil, the valid target area includes only the torso and groin, and a strike can only be made with the tip of the sword; in saber fencing, a strike can also be made with the cutting blade and the target area consists of everything above the waist, including the head and both arms. In swordplay, the target area is the entire body , from head to toe, including any clothing and equipment.) Chamley-Watson missed Tokyo due to injury.

Chamley-Watson aims to change perceptions about her sport. “When you think about fencing, it still has the stigma of it being an arrogant, elitist, difficult sport to break into in a predominantly white sport, right?” he says. Fencing has increased in popularity in recent years: USA Fencing, for example, has added more than 10,000 young members since the 2016-2017 season – a 68% increase. “I developed the sport and gave it a new look that they never had before,” he says. “I won’t stop until my sport becomes popular.”

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Like Simone Biles in gymnastics, Chamley-Watson is the rare Olympian with a move named after him: He has trademarked a technique in which he wraps his arm around his head and strikes his opponent in the middle of the chest. He says opponents often try Chamley-Watson on him, without success. “They never hit me,” he says.

The men’s individual foil competition takes place on July 29th, at the Grand Palais, in Paris; Chamley-Watson will compete in the team foil on August 4th. “You will see an unconventional style that will appeal to you,” he says. “The way I fence, my charisma, the way my energy is, I think you’ll love it and you’ll see something you’ve never seen before, that’s for sure.”

Will he win?

“There is no other option, my dear.”