A FLAIR FOR THE DRAMATIC

A fencing bout, even at the Olympics, is generally fairly straightforward. The two combatants face each other, a tone sounds, they lunge, and a few seconds later someone has scored a point.

A match seldom looks much like the wildly theatrical sword duels you might see in Robin Hood or a pirate movie.

It is all the more remarkable, then, when the American Olympian Miles Chamley-Watson whips his sword around the back of his head to score a point on his befuddled opponent.

That eye- opening move, now known as the Chamley-Watson, is a touch of flamboyance in a formal, sometimes staid sport.

“It’s so nice when I do it because you get that ‘ooooooh,’” Chamley-Watson said. “In fencing, you don’t get that very often. It’s really nice to bring that different type of feeling, a new phase to a sport that’s one of the oldest.”

Chamley-Watson, 26, the 2013 world champion in the foil, is known for his entertaining, creative style of fencing and outsized personality. “He has sort of a crazy persona,” said the U. S. foil coach, Greg Massialas.

He performed his signature move for the first time at the 2009 world championships. The move was spontaneous, not planned.

“I have no idea why or how I did it,” Chamley-Watson said. “I have no idea. The referee stopped the bout and made my opponent and I both go to the video machine and watch it” to see if it was legal.

Once it was determined to be a legitimate move, the general reaction was, Chamley-Watson said: “Wow, he hit you in your chest by wrapping his own arm around his own head.”

Besides being showstopping, the move can be startlingly effective.

“It’s really hard to defend,” Chamley-Watson said. “I can hit you in the upper part of your torso, the lower part of your torso — even on your back, if you duck. So it’s a very effective move, and it’s nice that I’m the only one who can do it.”

That’s one reason that other top fencers have not quickly adopted the move: They just can’t do it. Chamley-Watson is helped by standing six-footf-our. “I’m very flexible, and I have very long arms,” he said. “I don’t think you could do it if your arms are short.”

Massialas said: “Nobody is as tall or lanky or as quick as he is.”

Few fencers are happy to be the victim of the splashy move. Some take drastic steps to avoid being shown up by it.

“They get super- embarrassed,” ChamleyWatson said. “That’s the best part. Everyone gets super-mad.

“They always try to block it. They’ll take a yellow card, they’ll try to bump into me. They’d rather get a yellow card than get embarrassed on live television. I don’t blame them.”

Unfortunately for Chamley-Watson, the move couldn’t save him in the individual event — he fell 15-13 to Russia’s Artur Ahkmatkhuzin in the round of 32 Sunday.