The United States will be represented by a delegation of 592 athletes at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics opening ceremony. Among the 45 competitions and 32 different sports, fencing stands out.

Fencing, a combat sport involving sword fighting, will showcase three disciplines: foil, épée, and saber. Each discipline uses a unique blade and has its own set of rules. In Paris, the U.S. team will include two Black fencers: Miles Chamley-Watson, a three-time Olympian who won bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and Lauren Scruggs, a Harvard University student making her Olympic debut.

Chamley-Watson and Scruggs shared their early experiences with fencing and their paths to success.

“I was born in London but moved to New York when I was about 11 years old. I was getting into trouble and having fights, as a new kid with a London accent. When I got into trouble again, as punishment from 3:00 to 4:30, until my grades got better, I had to pick up tennis, badminton, or fencing,” Chamley-Watson told BET.com. “I thought to myself that I could ‘stab’ people and not get in trouble. This is amazing. If I hadn’t gotten into trouble, I would not have gotten out of trouble. It was love at first sight.”

“Then I went to a boarding school in Long Island before going to Penn State for a couple of years. Then I became a professional fencer,” he added.

Inspired by her brother, who was a fencer, Scruggs followed in his footsteps and became passionate about the sport.

“My older brother saw Star Wars and said, ‘I really want to do sword fighting.’ Then my mom saw an ad for this club in Brooklyn and enrolled him,” Scruggs said. “As the younger sibling, I always wanted to do whatever he did, so I started fencing and I stuck with it.”

“I think I was pretty good when I was around 10. I was just winning a lot of tournaments and I progressed the more I got into the sport. On the junior level, when I was 15-16, internationally, I was doing well,” she explained. “One year, I won the Junior World and Cadet World. Olympic-wise, the transition from juniors to seniors is quite big. Only two years ago did I think I was Olympic-level good.”

Both Chamley-Watson and Scruggs emphasized the dedication required to excel in fencing, highlighting the countless hours of practice.

“I was really good at it right away and I won the Junior Olympics after four years of fencing. Most kids had been playing for 10-12 years,” Chamley-Watson said. “I was under 16, so they had a head start, but I worked hard and we caught up pretty quick.”

“It’s a skills-based sport so it takes a lot of practice and a lot of repetition, like tennis. You have to get into a club where you can practice with other people,” Scruggs said. “Honestly, you should try to practice at least four times a week because it's such a new thing for you to learn. It just takes a lot of time to develop your skills.”

Chamley-Watson also discussed his vision to make fencing more accessible to Black kids.

“Luckily, I had this lovely woman who saw my potential and took me under her wing because the sport is expensive with equipment, competitions, and travel. She's good now. I can take care of her now,” he said. “But it's still very inaccessible. So when I got to a certain point, now being able to live a very good life, my goal was to give back to those people so they didn't have to run into the barriers that I had to walk into.”

“With my foundation, we teach kids fencing and eventually I want to own my own fencing club to take the sport to a whole different level,” he added.

Scruggs shared her efforts to raise awareness of fencing and her experiences navigating racism in a predominantly white sport.

“I think a lot of Black people just don't know about fencing. It's typically thought of as a white sport. But I'm part of the Peter Westbrook Foundation. He was the first African American to win an Olympic medal in fencing. It’s great to be a part of the foundation with other Black people who love dispensing their knowledge and younger kids who are learning to fence,” she said.

“In terms of just being a Black fencer, the sport has not historically been for us. Sometimes, I’ve faced racism but it's all about just keeping your composure and having your skills do the talking for you,” she continued. “With my skills and when I keep my emotions intact so I’m always in control, there's nothing people generally do at that point.”

Both Chamley-Watson and Scruggs are excited about the global stage the Olympics provides and the possibility of winning medals.

“I have incredible teammates, so hopefully we can come home with the gold medal and make history,” Chamley-Watson said. “I'm looking forward to bringing a shiny new medal home.”

“Obviously, I want to win a medal,” Scruggs said. “But my goal is also to be as good as I can be. If I give my best, that would be cool.”