I Talked With Miles Chamley-Watson

…Or just being cheeky? The writer of our pesky kid brother newsletter, SportsVerse, witnessed Nike’s golden boy, Travis Scott, in an Adidas/Y-3 jacket, and investigated this tea. Come for the fit, stay for the drama.

Christen Press and Tobin Heath dropped The RE—CAP Collection, and I already copped some (obviously), and I specifically need to recommend it to the “Bad Gays” (IYKYK) out there. I’ll have a more thorough gift guide on Friday, but there’s a little taste for you. 

Canadian-born pop star Tate McRae is kind of the Hockey’s Princess. She’s always at games, and she’s also maybe dating the New Jersey Devils’ Jack Hughes?! More like Date McRae. Madeline Hill dives deep here. 

We talk a lot about the Face of the League, but how about the Face of the Four Letter? That’s officially Elle Duncan at Netflix, who hired Duncan as their very first full-time sports personality. This is exciting for everyone, though we’ll have a Chiney-Elle-Andraya-sized hole in our hearts. 

America, your country needs you…to post a video of your soccer skills. The three best players in the world get a roster spot on Team USA for the 2026 Kings League World Cup Nations. Seems fake, but it’s not! Kings League founder Gerard Piqué promises.

In this line of work, sometimes you interview someone, and think, “That probably doesn’t warrant a full section in the newsletter, but it was ok.” Then other times, you interview someone like world-class fencer, visionary and founder of the newly-announced World Fencing League, Miles Chamley-Watson, and you think, “How do I not dedicate 10 newsletters to this conversation?” 

There’s a reason Anna Wintour loves him so much; he was the only athlete to walk at Vogue World Hollywood. “That’s my girl!” he said of Wintour, with a big smile on his face. Originally, he was supposed to spectate, but just before the show, there was an outfit they didn’t have anyone to wear (from “Dune,” ever heard of it???), and she suggested Chamley-Watson. 

He’s made friends with the likes of Lewis Hamilton (who he was in Las Vegas over the weekend to support) and Speedy Morman (his new favorite follow on social media, he tells me, tied only with Keegan Michael Key). He’s a man with taste, obviously, and perhaps that’s why others are so drawn to him. Regarding his founding of the WFL, I asked him what his “green light” from the universe looked like, and he explained a moment at the 2024 Olympics, where it hit him that gargantuan figures like LeBron James and then-First Lady Jill Biden came to watch. He knew in that moment they didn’t need the audience—the audience was already there. They just needed more opportunities for people to see it.

Inspired by friends Shaun White (Snow League) and Paul Rabil (Premiere Lacrosse League), Chamley-Watson realized he could create new opportunities for fencers, who deserve to make a living wage playing their sport, rather than worrying about a second job (most fencers have jobs in finance, if you’re curious). 

And the most rewarding part of all has been the feedback he’s received from parents. He received a flood of DMs from parents thanking him. “You’ve just changed my kid’s life,” they told him. It’s messaging that feels extra special to him, because “my mom is my everything,” he told me. The selfless sacrifices a parent makes for their child, with no return in sight, are a beautiful thing. Thanks to Chamley-Watson, those families might have a return coming their way. Unrelated, but he also gave me one of my favorite new mantras, which is: “The more blessings I get, the more humble I get.” 

A bonus to all of this is that a sport he said kids used to get bullied for playing can become mainstream. Because as kids, we didn’t know so much about fencing. We didn’t see it much. Maybe we still don’t. We’ve seen it in an episode of “Gilmore Girls” and also (he reminded me) ‘The Parent Trap.’ He also reminded me of the fencing scenes in ‘I Love You, Man,’ though. He met Paul Rudd recently and made him give him this famous line delivery. And, of course, ‘Wednesday,’ which Jenna Ortega fences in. She once told him she tried to reach out to him about it, but he was busy training for a little something called “the Olympic Games” (heard of it??). 

Ok, so maybe we have seen fencing a few times already! And maybe we should know more about it! And maybe now, thanks to Miles Chamley-Watson, we will! 

We all know sitting in the house with your relatives on Thanksgiving is the perfect recipe for boundaries to be crossed and feuds to be ignited (or reignited). Not anymore. Not for you.  Because when you get a minor inkling to even engage with something that is anywhere near controversial, you’re going to take a deep breath, open this newsletter, and do the following: 

1. First and foremost, make sure the games are on in the background. Doesn’t matter what games. They don’t even have to be live games, I’m not above watching a replay if that’s what it takes to keep mouths shut and eyes on the TV. 

2. Second, these painted baseball gloves are pretty mesmerizing—your brother-in-law is going to love them. Click here and hand him your phone. 

3. If that fails, and everyone insists on chit-chatting, pose a hypothetical question to the group. “Do you think you could drive a NASCAR without crashing?”

4. If nothing else, there’s always the classic “playing catch in the street” (though I admittedly broke my foot doing this a couple years ago, so be warned). 

5. Nothing brings a family together like reminding yourselves you’re all on the same team, which FanDuel has done for you, if you’re into sports betting. (Disclaimer: don’t expect your crazy uncle to pay you back, no matter what he says.)

6. Finally, when you’re seated for dinner, and everyone’s already said they’re grateful for the family and friends and hopeful for whirled peas, you can say you’re grateful for basketball. And here’s why.