The headline in the Washington Post read “So I Married an Ax Thrower.” It was a clever play on an old Mike Myers movie title and it was also 100% true. Suzie Bassett – a nationally renowned axe-thrower had indeed met a fellow axe-thrower on the circuit and married him in October. The Post wrote about the couple in April.
Longtime readers may remember that Bassett, a lawyer by day and competitive axe-thrower by night, was featured on the cover of Ashburn Magazine in November 2022. Since then, she married her axe-throwing boyfriend, Russ Murphy, a science teacher at Potomac Falls High School, and the happy couple moved to Sterling.
She and Murphy also competed as a team for the first time at the World Axe and Knife Throwing Championships in April in Tulsa, Okla.
“We didn’t place in anything, but we still had a really good time,” Bassett said. “We won a few matches that we weren’t expecting to win. It was Russ’ first tournament and I thought the pressure might get to him, but he threw amazing.”
And Bassett herself continues to make her mark in the axe-throwing world. She was named the 2023 Top Female hatchet-thrower in the nation by the Women’s Axe Council. And in June, the World Axe Throwing League announced that Bassett had made the pro league for the second year in a row, meaning she automatically qualifies for the World Championships in 2025.
— Chris Wadsworth
