Murray Bales-Smith: from being stabbed to getting back on the boat

World Rowing reached out to South Africa’s Murray Bales-Smith to discuss his rowing plans after an incredibly challenging 2023, from dealing with family bereavement to being stabbed and now training to qualify for the World Rowing Championships. 

Bales-Smith started his rowing journey at Grey High School in South Africa. He says, “With the South African rowing community being so small, it has such a supportive culture, with everyone knowing each other.”

His lightweight sculling career took him to train in environments such as the Roodeplaat Dam in Pretoria, a nature reserve where he would regularly spot animals like the kudo (an antelope) or an impala by its banks. Temperatures soar during the summer, which Bales-Smith prefers, but says, “We don’t like it when it drops below 10°(Celsius)! When it gets too cold, we escape to Tzaneen Dam. It’s a big dam with warm and glassy conditions, known as ‘The Land of Speed’, ideal for our final preparation camps before international competition. The dam does have a few hippos so you always have to be on the lookout.”

2023 became Bales-Smith’s breakout year in the single, sculling internationally in the World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne and then competing in the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrave. “It was a dream come true to race the lightweight single at the World Rowing Championships. Having had one of the hardest training blocks of my life, both physically and emotionally. Fortunately, I had some great races and ended up racing in the B-Final, which was an improvement from Lucerne,” reflects Bales Smith.

However, the time between the World Rowing Cup and the World Rowing Championships was traumatic for Bales-Smith. He laments, “I found out my father had cancer just after Lucerne, which led to an incredibly tough time training towards the World Rowing Championship. I didn’t realise how much the emotions would have an impact on my performance and my times kept getting slower.”

His coaches, alarmed, called an emergency meeting to ask what was going on. Bales-Smith, who had bottled his emotions, eventually opened up. He recalled, “Opening up was something I am so glad I had done. They helped me access our team psychologist and they adapted my program to help me come right for Belgrave.”

The context made Bales-Smith’s achievements in Belgrave all the more remarkable. “I only really started to perform again in the last set of race preparation pieces once we arrived in Serbia. I’m just thankful my coaches believed in me even when I didn’t, and I ended up having some great racing,” He recalls. “Making the AB Semi-final meant so much to me, it made me realise how far I had come, I used to be an under-16 rower who was too scared to row the single, and after years of rising through the ranks in South African rowing, there I was finally racing in the B-final on the lightweight single scull at World Championships.”

However, his life turned darker, when a month after Belgrave, during a cycle in Pretoria, he was robbed and assaulted, with multiple stab wounds, ending up in hospital. “The stabbing incident was about a week until we were supposed to return to training,” he says. The devastating situation forced Bales-Smith to recover for three months, up-ending his rowing season. Despite this, Bales-Smith, remained philosophical, saying, “It forced me to take some time off of rowing which was probably a good thing as I had to deal with the passing of my father.”

Bales-Smith is now rebuilding, having been “forced to start all over again”, returning to local racing to stay motivated and has started to enjoy the process of getting fitter again, despite the challenges. “The hardest part was knowing what I used to be capable of, but now not being able to even do a full week’s training let alone the times I used to get on the ergo or water,” he reflects.

Now his focus is on competing at the World Rowing Championships in 2024, with a longer-term dream to go to the Olympics. Bales-Smith says, “I’ll always have the dream of competing at the Olympics, how I will get there I’m not sure, but my approach is to just train hard and be ready for any opportunities, so I guess I’ll keep doing that!”

With lightweight rowing phasing out in the Olympics and Coastal Rowing coming in, Bales-Smith added teasingly, “Coastal rowing is definitely something I would be interested to try. I have always loved the ocean and grew up surfing so maybe it could be something for me…”.

World Rowing thanks Murray Bales-Smith for being so open about his rowing journey and wishes him well for the future.