Miles Chamley-Watson still remembers the moment he arrived at his Met Gala table nine years ago and surveyed the world's most glamorous fashion event.
With Madonna to his right and Rihanna on his left, the London-born American fencer was the unexpected filling in a pop royalty sandwich. Also on his table was seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton, who has since become Chamley-Watson's "best friend."
For someone whose primary vocation lies in one of the Olympics' most niche sports, it was an unlikely position to be in.
"I was like: 'Wow, what am I doing here?'" recalls Chamley-Watson. "It was wild – I'd watched these people and grown up listening to them, and I was at the same table. You realise everybody here is the best at what they do. It was really, really cool. That was my first taste of celebrity stardom."
Chamley-Watson, 36, has been one of the world's leading fencers for more than a decade. He has competed at three Olympics, winning team bronze in 2016, and became the first American male to win an individual world title when he claimed foil gold in 2013.
His latest dream is to take the sport mainstream with this week's launch of his World Fencing League. But it was a move into fashion modelling after his Olympic debut at London 2012 that propelled him into an entirely different public sphere – a world of fame and private jets not often associated with fencing.
Over the past year, Chamley-Watson has launched his own Nike trainer, partnered with a raft of luxury brands, and appeared in a campaign alongside supermodel Claudia Schiffer. He describes Hamilton as a "brother," and his 450,000 Instagram followers are regularly treated to images of the pair enjoying themselves together around the world.
The man with the social media handle @fencer has become disproportionately bigger than the sport itself.
"My life is so insane," he admits. "I want to tell my team-mates and want to talk to them about it, but it's just so unrelatable. Even for me, it's really nuts."
It is a far cry from his humble beginnings and unusual route into the sport. Raised in London until his family relocated to New York when he was nine, Chamley-Watson describes himself as a "bad kid" growing up. Having struggled with severe ADHD and been expelled from a number of schools, he received a grant to attend a leading private school in Manhattan.