USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – London Olympian and 2013 Senior World Champion Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.) is used to travelling the world for fencing competitions.

Over the weekend, however, Chamley-Watson boarded a plane to Nanjing, China for a different purpose.

This time, he would be going to the Youth Olympic Games not to compete, but to serve as an athlete role model.

Chamley-Watson was selected for the honor by the International Olympic Committee and he is one of a an all-star athlete list that includes 2012 Olympic Fencing Champion Sheng Lei (CHN), 2012 Olympic Judo Champion Lucie Decosse (FRA), 2004 Olympic Track and Field Champion Liu Xiang (CHN) and two-time Olympic Bobsled Champion Heather Moyse (CAN).

“The other role models have amazing resumes in their sports, so it’s been great to share experiences with them, especially since I am one of the youngest,” Chamley-Watson said.

As an athlete role model, Chamley-Watson’s schedule has been packed full of fencing demonstrations with kids, media interviews and autograph sessions.

“My experience so far has been amazing. I have been getting so much love from all the kids and the people here in Nanjing. We have had so many kids showing up and asking me questions, and saying that it’s an honor to meet me. It’s really been humbling,” said Chamley-Watson who had the opportunity to meet with IOC President Thomas Bach, himself an Olympic medalist in fencing, during a demonstration in Nanjing.

Chamley-Watson also was on site at the fencing venue where he presented medals after the women’s epee event on Monday.

“My best experience so far I think was when I had about a hundred people running after me after I handed out the medals for women’s epee and I had to be put into a car and driven off. That was my David Beckham moment,” Chamley-Watson laughed. “But, really, this entire trip has just been an amazing honor. The Youth Olympics themselves are a wonderful competition and education opportunity for these kids and being part of that as an athlete has been an even better experience than I had hoped. I wasn’t sure what it would be like, but the athlete role model program is great because the kids can learn from you, ask you questions and for them it’s important because they get to interact with you one-on-one with their role models and learn what it takes to make it to the big stage of the Olympics in the next two or four or even eight years down the road.”