Chamney runs for the Crusaders AC club whilst in Dublin and has been on an athletics scholarship at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana where he studied English from 2002–2007.
In 2006, Chamney earned All-America honours at the NCAA Indoor Championships, picking up his first career citation with a sixth-place finish in the 800-metre run at the Randall Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
[6] An English major at the University of Notre Dame, Chamney was able to use his literary talents and his personality to build a loyal fanbase of American readers who appreciated his humor.
[7] Chamney's entries were generally quite a lengthy fictionalised version of events written in an Irish vernacular, drawing inspiration from a similar column in Dublin's Sunday Tribune.
[9] Having graduated the University of Notre Dame in May 2007, Chamney trained briefly in Soria, Spain, with coach Enrique Pascual before moving to Tallahassee, Florida, to prepare for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.