Against the current - a decade of belief turns South African rowing into a consistent world contender
Click to view film - A Decade on the Water, traces ten years of investment that gave a chronically under-funded sport the infrastructure to compete - and the results now speak for themselves
The story of rowing in South Africa has always been the plucky underdog punching above its weight, Rocky Balboa–style. What's changed over the past decade is what's underneath that fight.
“Even if you’re not winning on the water, rowing is going to give you so much more than sport. It’s going to give you everything that comes with rowing. And the legacy that we want to leave behind is that it’s sustainable. The sport is in a good place for many years to come and that South Africa is shining on the world’s greatest stage,” says Michael Edwards, RMB’s Sponsorship Marketing Lead says in RMB’s new short film ‘A Decade on the Water’.
South Africa has never lacked rowing talent or appetite. The sport produced an Olympic gold medal-winning lightweight men’s four in 2012, long before RMB’s involvement. What it lacked was the consistent funding to turn that talent into a sustainable career path. That changed in 2015, when RMB began backing school and development rowing, formalising a full partnership with Rowing South Africa the following year and becoming title sponsor of the national squad in 2017 - a commitment it has now kept for ten consecutive years, through two Olympic cycles, a global pandemic, and a changing cast of athletes and coaches.
The results are traceable, not just claimed. 2017 brought South Africa’s first world champion of the era, Kirsten McCann, in the lightweight women’s single. Tokyo 2021 delivered an Olympic-qualifying regatta win and a World Cup silver for the men’s four. Paris 2024 saw the squad represented across multiple boat classes, and by 2025 and 2026, Paige Badenhorst and the men’s pair of Chris Baxter and Damien Bonhage-Koen were finishing inside the world’s top ten - the kind of consistency South African rowing couldn’t produce on short-term funding alone.
“Key for me is the stability and consistency that RMB’s support brings,” says Carolyn Thompson, RowSA vice-president. “It gives the national squad coach the ability to better plan for events and allows a different level of professionalism around the sport in the form of physios, biokineticists and physiologists. Most of all, it enables the athletes to focus on improving their skillset and form without having to worry about funding their athletic journeys.”
Roger Barrow, former South African national rowing coach, played a key role in developing the systems and support needed to help South African rowers compete consistently at the highest level. “When I took over as Head Coach in 2009, we had a strong foundation of talent and determination. RMB’s support from 2015 helped strengthen that foundation, bringing stability and enabling athletes to train full-time, plan for Olympic cycles and access the coaching and support they needed to succeed on the world stage.”
For Ben Burnand, president of Rowing South Africa, one of the most important aspects of RMB’s investment is the inspiration and opportunity it creates for the next generation of rowers. “To rub shoulders with someone who has just come back from the Olympics is something else, something special,” he says in RMB’s new short film, A Decade on the Water.
That stability has reached further than the national squad. Rowing is now represented in all nine provinces - growth RowSA development coordinator Virginia Mabaso credits largely to the introduction of indoor rowing as a tool for mass participation. Chris Baxter, South Africa’s former U/23 world champion and a Paris Olympian, and Thato Mokoena, head coach of Tuks Rowing and assistant coach to the national squad, are both products of that same pathway - proof that the investment produces not just athletes, but careers.
It’s a pathway the current generation is living in real time. Katherine Williams and Courtney Westley, both students, went from the RMB National Squad at the World Rowing Championships to competing for Tuks at the RMB Universities’ Boat Race within weeks of each other this year. “South African rowing has definitely progressed in a way that requires a high standard of performances, from the heats to the finals,” says Westley. For Williams, the sport’s appeal is in exactly that range: “You can be in a single scull by yourself or in a crew boat with others, and switching between those dynamics at a competitive level will teach you so much as an athlete and that’s why the university boat race is such an incredible regatta, as every individual has to come together in order to make the boat move.”
RMB National Squad head coach Andrew Grant, who stepped into the role in 2026, still describes the sport the way an athlete would: “Rowing is a bit like a bug. When I was 13 or 14, I got bitten so badly by that bug … there’s something special about a boat going fast, moving through water.”
Olympic gold medallist and University of Johannesburg rowing coach Sizwe Ndlovu an accredited World Rowing Development Expert, says RMB’s long-term support has played an important role in making these pathways possible. "Its support of rowing over the years has helped create opportunities at school, university and national level. Importantly, RMB understands that rowing is not only about winning races; it develops teamwork, discipline, leadership and resilience."
For Michael Edwards, RMB’s Sponsorship Marketing Lead, the next decade is the real test of what’s been built. “If the past is anything to go by, the future definitely holds medals - international medals on the sport’s greatest stages, like the World Championships and the Olympic Games. But, of equal importance, medals for young men and women pushing their own limits and growing their character, at all levels of the sport.”
TIMELINE: A decade of SA rowing milestones
2015: RMB starts backing South African school and development rowing.
2016: RMB formally launches its partnership with Rowing South Africa.
2017: RMB becomes the naming sponsor of the national rowing squad.
2017: Kirsten McCann becomes world champion in the lightweight women's single. South Africa also scoops two silver and two bronze medals at age group level, with Kyle Schoonbee (U23 single), Megan Hancock (U19 single), Nicole van Wyk (U23 lightweight single) and Thabelo Masutha (U19 men’s single).
2018: Charles Brittain and James Mitchell continue SA’s strong history in the men's pair event, taking gold at U23 World Championships, followed by impressive performances in the World Cups from both the men’s four and women's lightweight double teams.
2019: Strong junior and U23 performances, with silver medals from the U23 women’s pair (Jessica Schoonbee and Tayla-May Bentley) and junior men’s coxed four (Bakang Zondi, Brandon Janse van Vuuren, Daton Wolfaardt, Nathan Fletcher and Sebastian Prince).
2020: Olympics and most World Championships being postponed or cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
2021: Tokyo Olympics. SA’s men’s four (John Smith, Kyle Schoonbee, Lawrence Brittain and Sandro Torrente) win the Olympic qualification regatta and follow up with a silver at the World Cup. In the age group events, Kat Williams wins a bronze medal at the U23 World Championships.
2022: Roger Barrow retires and Tiago Loureiro takes over running the national team. Damien Bonhage-Koen and Chris Baxter win the U23 men’s pair at the World Rowing Championships, while Kirsten McCann makes a comeback and picks up a World Cup bronze.
2023: Good World Cup performances, with a silver in the men’s four and bronze in the women's double. At the World Champs, South Africa qualifies for the men’s pair for the Olympics and at the Africa Champs, the women's single qualifies for the Olympics.
2023: With RMB’s support, South Africa hosts a successful World Rowing Masters Regatta.
2024: Paris Olympics. Paige Badenhorst picks up a 14th place in the women’s single and John Smith and Chris Baxter achieve 9th place in the men’s pair. In the junior section, Danelia Price-Hughes wins a silver medal.
2025: John Smith retires after competing in four Olympic Games. At the World Champs, Chloe Cresswell wins a silver medal in the U23 lightweight women’s single. The men’s pair team, now Chris Baxter and Damien Bonhage-Koen, enjoy a strong World Cup season with a 7th and 10th place finish, ultimately finishing 10th at the World Champs. Paige Badenhorst has an incredible World Champs, breaking into the top 10 in the world with an 8th place finish. Coastal rowing is confirmed as an Olympic sport at LA 2028 and Murray Bales-Smith places 8th in the world at his first ever World Championships.
2026: AJ Grant steps into the role of national head coach. Paige Badenhorst continues with her strong performances in a tough women’s single event, finishing 10th at the World Championships. Murray Bales-Smith has had some strong performances and is looking good for the LA 2028 top 10; he is heading to China to race in October.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Rowing calendar:
- Buffalo and Selborne Sprints – February 2027
- SA Schools Championships – March 2027
- SA Senior Championships – April 2027
- Henley Royal Regatta – June/July 2027
- World Rowing Cup III – July 2027
- World Rowing Under 19 & Under 23 Championships – July/August 2027
- World Rowing Championships – August 2027
- RMB Universities’ Boat Race – September 2027
- World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals – October 2027