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Singleton schoolgirl inspired by an Aussie Olympic Champion

Writer's picture: Ben WaterworthBen Waterworth

A chance meeting with an Olympic champion changed the destiny of Hunter Valley pentathlete Genevieve van Rensburg.


Growing up in Singleton, two hours north of Sydney, Genevieve was like most country kids playing a range of sports including netball, swimming, sailing and horse riding.


But it was when Rio Olympic Pentathlon champion

Chole Esposito

attended her school’s annual sports awards night, her future was sealed.


Modern Pentathlon has five disciplines to master; swimming, show jumping, shooting, running and fencing. Genevieve only had previous experience in two; swimming and equestrian. It was Chloe who steered her towards a sport she knew very little about.


“I always did the swimming and I always did the horse riding because I really loved horses as a kid,” she says.


“Then Chloe came to our school to talk about her experiences after she won the gold medal.


“I was sitting in the crowd, and thought, ‘Oh, that's only two more sports. I could do that.’



For any athlete, making a national team is the culmination of hard work and effort over many years of training, but for Genevieve, things were different.


She rose through the Modern Pentathlon ranks so quickly she found herself representing Australia just 18 months after taking up the sport.


In 2018, Genevieve was wearing the green and gold at the Asia Oceania Championships where she represented Australia for the first time.


She finished a respectable 17th. The same year she also showcased her fencing skills finishing second in the women’s epee under-15 event at the Australian National Championships.


Six years on she makes her Olympic debut in Paris, in one of the most gruelling and unique sports.


Interestingly, of all the disciplines she learnt after Chloe’s inspirational visit, it’s fencing Genevieve has taken to the most.



“I was super lucky when I went into fencing because I kind of just picked it up very naturally,” she says.


“I fell in love with it immediately. So it was very lucky for me having to pick up two sports and then falling in love with one of them. It worked out really well.”


Genevieve was Australia’s number one epee fencer in 2021. She hasn’t ruled out a full time switch to the sport in the future. But for now, her focus remains on Modern Pentathlon.


Her path to the Olympics has not been without challenges. Genevieve was to compete for Australia at the 2022 Youth Olympics in Dakar.


However, those Games were postponed due to the COVID pandemic. She refocussed and set a more ambitious target of making the squad for the Paris Olympics.


She achieved this, finishing second at the 2023 Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) African and Oceania Championships in Cairo which secured an Olympic quota spot for Australia.


Genevieve is Australia’s sole modern pentathlete in Paris, making her part of the smallest team of any sport Australia will contest.


Genevieve says her selection felt extra special when Chloe reached out to congratulate her.


“She's reached out, which is super motivating,” she says.


“When your hero in the sport reaches out, it's like ‘oh my god, I've made it’.”


Currently ranked 88th in the world, she is guaranteed to finish higher than her global ranking as there are only 72 pentathletes in the women’s event.


Despite this, she has set her sights high and aims to make the final.


“I definitely want to make finals,” she says.


“That's my biggest goal going in. It is my first Olympics, I want to make the most of it and have fun. I do want to really make the top 18 as I think that would be super good for me.”


Genevieve says having little expectations on her shoulders will give her an advantage.


“There's a lot less pressure on me than there is for the top girls who medal regularly. That would be really stressful,” she says.


“It's a lot easier to perform your best when you're not worrying about how other people are viewing your performance.”


The women’s Modern Pentathlon will be held at the North Paris Arena and Château de Versailles from 8-11 August.


This article was originally written for The Australian Olympic Team. You can read the published version here

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