Team USA fencer Miles Chamley-Watson’s passion for the discipline stemmed from a unique experience: a childhood punishment.
“I was kinda a bad kid, got in trouble all the time, pain in the butt, so then as a punishment, I had to pick up tennis, fencing or badminton,” Chamley-Watson recently recalled to The Post.
Intrigued by swords, the now-34-year-old Chamley-Watson — who relocated from the U.K. to the U.S. when he was about 9 1/2 — picked up the weapon and never looked back.
“I loved it right away, and then I started to get better in school, I started to fence more,” he said. “So whenever I got into trouble, I never got out of trouble.”
The first man of Team USA to win an individual Senior World Championship title in 2013, Chamley-Watson’s legacy in fencing has continued to grow ever since he picked up the foil, one of the sport’s three weapons.
Considered the “sport of royalty,” the foil is “a descendant of the light court sword used by nobility to train for duels,” and allows those competing to “attack an opponent from seemingly impossible angles,” per USA Fencing.
“It was the first thing that they gave me, luckily they handed me the foil and I was like, ‘Oh, this is fun,’ and I didn’t even know there were three others at the time. I picked it up and I was like, ‘I love it,’ and that was kind of history,” Chamley-Watson said.
From revealing his own move at the 2009 World Championships – the aptly named “Chamley-Watson,” in which he wrapped an arm around the back of his head and struck his opponent in the chest — to reaching the pinnacle of his sport at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, winning the bronze in team foil, the Red Bull athlete is hoping his third shot at Olympic glory will be the charm in the case of gold.
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“Paris is just a magical city in general, but also for the sport. Fencing’s very big in France, so it’s going to be fun,” he said. “Got a good group of my friends coming so it should be a lovely time.”
It’s going to be a swift return to the City of Lights for Chamley-Watson, who was one of the select athletes to participate in the Vogue World fashion show in June, along with Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and star Spurs center Victor Wembanyama.
“I had to convince my coach,” Chamley-Watson said of the “insane” opportunity. “They did a full fencing display for me and then I kind of walked out, it was just such a cool experience cause there were only five or six athletes that were in the show… It was a really big moment and also got to represent my sport.”
A fashion maven who counts Dries Van Noten and Rick Owens among his favorite designers, Chamley-Watson is eager to expand his creative profile.
Beyond modeling — the Penn State alum previously hit the runway at Fashion Week and has attended the starry Met Gala — Chamley-Watson wants to dabble in design and has teamed up with the label Messou for a jewelry line.
“Definitely ready-to-wear and I might work on doing a collab with someone for suits as well,” Chamley-Watson said. “I’d like to get more into the fashion world at some point in my career.”
In addition to potentially adding more Olympic hardware to his collection, the tattoo enthusiast, who got his first ink after qualifying for the 2012 London Games, teased the possibility of new body art.
“I got a couple of tattoo artists in Paris that on a day off or two, I’ll visit them,” he said.
But perhaps one of the most anticipated events of Chamley-Watson’s Parisian schedule is seeing other athletes perform on the biggest stage, including those in sports he hasn’t caught in action before.
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“A couple of my friends play in basketball, a couple of my friends are in track, [I’ll] support them, see them,” he said. “I love to see new sports, breakdancing is in there for the first time, that’ll be really cool to see, so kind of seeing other sports I haven’t seen before.”
The men’s foil individual event gets underway July 29 and the men’s foil team competition takes place Aug. 4.
The 2024 Olympic Games begin July 26 and run through Aug. 11.
