Genevieve ‘Gen’ Chloe Janse van Rensburg is a modern pentathlete who was awarded a Tier 3 Scholarship within the 2023 Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program.
Born on the banks of the Hunter River in New South Wales – Singleton, in 2004, Gen competed in an array of sports including horse riding, netball, swimming, and sailing. In 2017, Chloe Esposito attended the annual school sports award night after becoming an Olympic champion in 2016 and Gen was entranced by her. Shortly after, at 14 years old she started fencing and then added horse riding, running, shooting and swimming.
Swimming and horse riding was already a skillset of Gen’s from a young age and her natural talent made fencing her preferred discipline with shooting and running training added to the regime completed the sport.
In 2018, Gen competed in her first international modern pentathlon event, the Asia Oceania Championships, having been entered into the relay. However, an athlete had to withdraw which led to Gen completing her first individual pentathlon competition.
Since then, Gen has competed in a variety of competitions. In 2019 she placed 11th – first in Oceania at the Asia Junior Oceania Championships. Throughout the Covid19 pandemic that put international competitions on hold throughout 2020/2021, Gen competed in multiple Fencing competitions medalling at six events across junior, cadets and open categories. These placings ranked Gen as the number one epee fencer in Australia in 2021.
In 2022, Gen was back on the international circuit, placing third at the U19 European Championships and bringing home the gold medal from the Australian Modern Pentathlon National Championships. All steppingstones to her major goal of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympic games.
Gen’s long-term goal, after she has made her international mark in modern pentathlon is to hang up the four sports to pursue international fencing.
Her success also excels out of sport. In 2021, Gen was accepted into the University of Newcastle to study advanced psychology as a steppingstone to move into medicine. After graduating she would like to become a general practitioner or clinical psychologist.
“I am so stoked and thankful to be a SAHOF scholarship recipient. It is such an honour to be recognised alongside all of these amazing athletes. The scholarship will be put towards funding my two major competitions of 2022, the Laser Run World Championship in Portugal and the Junior World Championships in Poland. Both of which will provide heaps of experience in preparation for Olympic qualifiers next year. Thanks so much SAHOF!.” – Genevieve Janse van Rensburg on being selected as a 2023 Tier 3 Scholarship Holder.
Honours & Achievements
- 2018: Nationals U15 – Women’s Epee – Silver
- 2019: National Juniors – Women’s Epee – 7th
- 2019: Asia Junior Oceania Championships – 11th (1st in Oceania)
- 2020: National Juniors – Women’s Epee – Gold
- 2021: National Cadets – Women’s Epee – Gold
- 2021: R. Chaplin (AFC #2) – Women’s Epee – Silver
- 2021: D.H. McKenzie (AFC #1) – Women’s Epee – Gold
- 2021: Australian Fencing National Championship – Bronze
- 2022: U19 European Championship – Bronze
- 2022: Australian Modern Pentathlon National Championships – Gold
- 2022: National Juniors – Women’s Epee – Gold
- 2022: D.H. McKenzie (AFC #1) – Women’s Epee – Gold
- 2023: Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship Holder
