Team USA fencers prepare for the Paris Summer Olympics
The 20 members of the U.S. Olympic fencing team met with the media at the New York Athletic Club to share details of their training, preparation and goals for the Paris Olympics this summer. The team includes fencers with New York City roots, high academic achievers and some future physicians.
Miles Chamley-Watson is headed to his third Olympics—having captured a bronze medal in the men’s foil team event in 2016. At 34, Chamley-Watson said that despite also finding success in the fashion/modeling world, he has found a new love for the sport. He acknowledged being a Black man in a predominantly white sport comes with unique pressure, but he sees that as a privilege.
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“I’m dealing with the celebrity world—the last couple of years my life has taken a turn for the best and I’m very grateful—and juggling all that is pretty exciting,” he said. “I’ve won everything in the sport (Chamley-Watson has two World Championship gold medals)—Grand Prixs, World Cups—winning an Olympic gold medal would be a dream come true.”
Among the youngest members of the team is Queens native Lauren Scruggs, who comes from a fencing family. She began fencing at a club in Brooklyn and as she progressed found her way to The Fencers Club in Manhattan. The Harvard University student-athlete is an alumna of the famed Peter Westbrook Foundation, a six-time world champion and 2023 NCAA women’s foil champion.
“The style I developed in fencing is, I think, quite unique for a woman’s foil,” said the 21-year-old Scruggs. “I like competing, I like winning, I think it’s fun. … I think I bring a youthful energy to the squad. I’m a little silly, while some of the older fencers might be more serious, which is needed, obviously. It’s fun to compete with them.”
Another New Yorker is Anne Cebula, epee, a 2020 graduate of Barnard College/Columbia Athletics. She has spent the past four years training while also working to support herself, including some modeling. With no pro fencing circuit, Cebula sees this Olympic opportunity as the pinnacle of the sport.
“Because you can’t go pro, you learn from a very young age that you can’t just be a fencer; we want to excel in school,” said Cebula. “This past year, I put everything on pause and trained. I told myself either I was going to make the Olympics or not, but I’m going to retire after this.”
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