Miles Chamley-Watson
If you decided to strike a sabre through clichés about fencing, which is considered one of the world’s most elitist sports, you would probably run into Miles Chamley-Watson. Miles describes himself as a kid from London with Jamaican, Irish, British and Malawian heritage, who moved to New York at the age of 10 and competes under the American flag. “It’s all a bit weird, admittedly!” he jokes in his thick London accent. Miles discovered fencing at the Dwight School in Manhattan. His teachers saw it as a good way of managing his hyperactivity. It was something of a double-edged sword as, since then, Miles has channelled what he calls “the child within” to become not only an Olympic medallist but also the first male American fencer to win an individual senior world champion title. His style is so unique that he even has a move named after him – the “Chamley-Watson”: a behind-the-back flick to the opponent’s opposite side.
“Time is it in my sport. You can train your whole life, but the merest millisecond means the difference between Gold and nothing. I train myself mentally in slow motion. I need to get in touch with my neural system, unblock my mind and establish a “flow state.”
Miles’s strict timekeeping means that he often describes himself as a “human watch”. Five years ago, he wrote a list of his dream partners. Richard Mille was one of them. “We’re both quite unconventional. It’s a brand that loves to take risks. I have the word ‘risk’ tattooed on my hand, and it inspires me whenever I compete.” Miles’s aim, first and foremost, is to shake off fencing’s “stuffy” image and take it from niche to mainstream. He sees it as a way of helping children who are often misunderstood at school, just like he was. “I want to show children what they’re capable of. I’m even working on new outfits and a scoring system with blinking lights that will allow fencing to be broadcast on prime-time television!”
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