Team USA fencing star Miles Chamley-Watson joked that Olympic athletes will always find a way to get the job done — even in the privacy of the Olympic Village.
In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Chamley-Watson, 34, brushed off the Village’s notorious cardboard beds, which have been nicknamed “anti-sex” by some on the ground in Paris.
“Listen, if you wanna get it done, you gonna get it done,” Chamley-Watson said from the Village with a laugh. “To each his own.”
Chamley-Watson has actually enjoyed his bed at the Games, saying, “I’ve been sleeping like a baby, sleeping really well. So I’ve got no issues with anything.”
At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, track star and two-time Olympic medalist Paul Chelimo posted photos of the beds via X, saying they are meant to avoid “intimacy among athletes.”
Chelimo continued, “Beds will be able to withstand the weight of a single person to avoid situations beyond sports.”
Olympic diver Tom Daley, who is also living in the Village in Paris, showed off his cardboard bed via TikTok on Monday, July 22, calling it “pretty sturdy.”
Bed controversy aside, the stylish and suave Chamley-Watson is hoping to change the perception of the sport of fencing during his time at the Olympic Games.
“Obviously, the sport is still niche, right?” Chamley-Watson said. “It’s still predominantly a whiter sport. “I want to change the way it’s viewed, taking the sport from niche to mainstream, getting more kids interested in the sport. Just putting it on a global scale.”
Chamley-Watson is more than willing to lead the charge in bringing fencing into the mainstream because, as he argued, “the sport has to change.”
“I have pride in that and I think that’s why I have a lot of endorsements and a lot of success,” Chamley-Watson, who has deals with brands like Mercedes and recently walked in Paris Fashion Week, boasted about his increasingly high profile. “I think the sport is still very stuffy. They’ll say, ‘You have to go to an Ivy League school to do that.’ You don’t have to do that. I didn’t finish school and look at me now.”
He continued, “Sitting on boards with billionaires is cool and all that, but when they hear me speak they’re like, ‘Oh wow.’ It’s a lot of judgment before I open up and let them know who I am. I’m like, ‘I can sit at this table, too.’
Looking at the big picture, Chamley-Watson — who makes his third Olympics appearance in Paris, competing in men’s foil — knows he has a higher calling than just making it to the podium.
“I can win all the medals I want. That’s cool,” he said. “But inspiring kids and giving them the opportunity to fence is a bigger purpose and more important than winning a medal.”
The fencing competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics kicks off Saturday, July 27.
