October 10, 2024 • 15 mins
It's one of the craziest Olympic sports - Modern Pentathlon - running, swimming, show-jumping, fencing & pistol shooting! And Singleton's Geneveive van ResBurg is fresh from the Paris Olympics, contemplating whether she's up for another Games in 4 years time.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hunter, So obviously there are people that were training downstairs that, like,
you know, big names, so.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
When people watch you shooting, they want to have a go.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
So I was like so starstruck when like I taught
Shana Jack how to shoot, and then we were walking
to the closing ceremony.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's talking with Jessica Fox.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
So we all know the time and sacrifice it takes
to make the Australian Olympics team. Swimmers do lap after
lap focused on the black line on the bottom of
the pool. Marathon runners pound k after k to get
the endurance they need to go the distance. So why
on earth would you be crazy enough to select an
event that doesn't just have running and swimming, but also
(00:44):
the highly skilled sports are fencing, show jumping and laser
pistol shooting. That's the modern pentathlon and that's what drives
our guests today towards her sporting glory. Hello, I'm SAMs Albert,
sitting in for Darren KATRUPI and twenty year old Genevieve
van Rensurg hails from Singleton and she's recently returned from
an amazing experience at the Paris Olympics. It was her
(01:06):
first ever Games she was the only Aussie in the event,
and she has quite a few stories to tell about Paris,
especially around the village accommodation, which we'll get to later.
Genevieve positioned herself as high as ninth in the Olympic
competition out of thirty four athletes, and she had a
massive win over French girl Led Clavel in the fencing
(01:27):
round in front of the Paris crowd. She got as
high as the semi finals. But let's find out exactly
what it is about the modern pentathlon that first appealed
to Genevieve way back in her singleton's school days, when,
as Darren KTRUPI found out, Genevieve's fascination started with a
special guest making a visit to Assembly.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
The twenty sixteen Olympic champion, Chloe Esposito, came to my
school and did a talk at the sports awards, And
I was sitting in the crowd, and I'd done riding
and swimming my whole childhood, and I'd run for school.
So when she was like talking about all the like
all her experiences in training and overseas competitions.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I was like, wow, Like.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I could do that, Like it's only two more sports
and it sounds really cool. So the next year I
picked up fencing, and then to eighteen I joined a
pentathlon group and started doing the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Can you explain to people that don't know what is
modern pentathlon and what's involved?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Modern pentathlon is a multi sport event comprised of shooting, running, swimming,
fencing and previously horse riding, but now it's obstacle course
racing and you fence everyone to one point.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
You swim two hundred meters.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
You used to ride a show jumping course with a
meter ten. Now it's an obstacle course, so like I
think Australian Ninja war style, like with the wall and
the monkey bars, and then fencing bonus round and then
you run three kilometers every six hundred meters, you stop
(03:11):
and do fire like a five series of shooting.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Is there a favorite part of all that that you prefer?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I'm best at the swimming, but I enjoy the fencing.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Is a fencing hard It's only something I've ever seen
in the movies, and't it It looks extremely challenging.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
It's quite technical.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I think you have to have like a lot of
coordination with your body to like nowhere it's going. But
I picked it up very quickly, so bit biased?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Is there a lot of fencing done or again is
it sort of a little bit obscure You have to
really do some research to find somewhere doing it.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Mostly all the major cities in Australia will have fencing clubs.
Regionally it's a little kafer so in newcast we have
two clubs, but that's it.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
So you definitely have to look around and shooting.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Is that something that is just like, well, I've got
to do it, or we actually enjoy the challenge of
that as well.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I think it's a lot more neutral, like it's not no,
I don't have like negative feelings towards it, and it's
not positive. It's just very much like you just do it,
you know, because it's very much like either I know,
it's quite like consistent.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Really, So what.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Did you think when you were told you're in the
Australian Olympics team.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, I've found out as soon as I want, like
I jolling, and I already knew whoever wins that competition
will go. So I knew as soon as I crossed
the line. It was insane, like just knowing that I'd
made it after all those years.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
How much time and energy do you put into the training?
Imagine it's not just an hour a week.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
No, No, So since I like left school, I did
three or four sessions a day every day except Sunday.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Well, that's that's a lot of time in You've got
to keep a job as well. I imagine being a
modern pent athlete doesn't pay a.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Lot no, so I have a job as a like
a receptionist.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And then people also forget the amount of travels that
it takes to get to training, like so for me,
it's like an hour to it was an hour to riding,
it was two and a half hours to fencing, it
was like twenty thirty minutes to swimming. Like it all,
they're just small things that just add up.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
And are you allowed as an olympian to get sponsorship
to help out or.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yes, yes, of course.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I just found my struggle being that pentathlon isn't a
very like universe, Like it's not a massive sport, so
a lot of companies are less enthusiastic about sponsoring. And
I also personally am not super active on like social media,
which also makes a little harder.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Okay, so you get on the plane. How many people
are in the in the modern pentathlete women's team for Australia.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yes, it's just me at the moment.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Last year we had three girls for Australia and two
New Zealand girls. The other two have retired, but they
might be coming back in future. It just depends on
injury and like obscure course racing, how that goes.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
So tell us about Paris. You arrive in Paris, what
was the experience, like, you know, going into the Olympic
village for the first time and all that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, everyone always tells you how incredible it is when
you go into the village, and I don't think like
there's ever enough words describe how like how mind blowing
it is going into this village with like so many
thousands of athletes and staff and like the focus is
just on your performance. It's like you just go on
(07:02):
dining Hall's open twenty four seven. There's the wholes giant
team working to get like air con, mattress stoppers, food,
like you're just never prepared for just like the enormity
of it, Like it's just it was so incredible and
like there's nothing that will ever like equal that experience.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
More soon of our conversation with modern pentathletic Genevieve van
Rensburg from Singleton, now inspiring others to have a crack
at this incredibly unique sport.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
I Heart Upper Hunter, I Heart Apper Hunter.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Sam Talbot with you for this episode of iHeart Upper Hunter.
As we go back now to Darren Katrupi's chat with
Singleton's Genevieve van Rensburg, Paris olympian who did us proud?
And what was her first ever games in the modern pentathlon.
It's a crazy event of five sports that requires focus,
endurance and versatility, and Genevieve has all of that in
(08:01):
bucket loads. So what was the Paris experience like for
this talented twenty year old. More specifically, what were those
cardboard beds really like in the Olympic village? Were they
really as bad as some athletes were saying.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
I found the mattress was like recycled plastic, you know,
for environmental reasons. I just think that was a little hard.
But the actual like bed frame, like the cardboard bed
frame itself, like you didn't notice, and the air con
a lot of like the other teams were saying it
was quite hot in the rooms, but Australia provided air
cons for us, so it was really nice.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
And they gave you a mattress top of two I think.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, yeah, So if you found it too firm, you
could get a mattress topper from downstairs, or you could
go there was like a mattress store in the village
and they provided mattress toppers as well, so there was
a lot of options if it wasn't like right for you.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
And the food, how did you find it? You said
the food hall was open twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I loved it. It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Like I heard a lot of complaints before I went
in that like there wasn't enough protein, like there.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Was just not enough food.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But then when I went in, like a week and
a bit later, it was it was so good. I
loved it so much. It was delicious and the chocolate
muffins so good.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
I was about to ask you what was your go to?
So if I was to do a headline saying Genevieve
survived on chocolate muffins, would that be accurate or reinacurate?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It would be pretty active. I mean I had one.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I think with every meal minus breakfast and then oh
they were so good.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I don't think I'd like one other dessert the whole
time I was there. It was so good.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Okay, So how much time did you spend in the
village compared to competition, Like, was I meaning being in
multiple events? It must have been quite quite a time
consuming event to be part of, as opposed to you know,
just swim a fifty lap or something.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
So obviously when I moved in, I had training most
days to took out like a couple hours, so usually
the morning was gone by the time we got back
from training, and an actual competition day the fencing takes
like three to four hours, so like with travel and
warm up, it would have been about six. And then
(10:23):
my semi finals day, so the one where we were
out in Vasai, I think our bus left like five
or six.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
In the morning.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
I think I got back at nine or ten because
I stayed to watch the men's final.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Did you, I suppose, socialize or meet some of the
bigger names in the sports, and was there anyone you
I suppose we were a little bit star struck with.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I did a lot, like a lot of training for
shooting in the gym downstairs in our Australia gym because
it was a long way to travel to go to
the training facilities just to go shooting.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So obviously there were people.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
That were training downstairs that were like, you know, big names,
so when people watch you shooting, they want to have
a go. So I was like so starstruck when like
I taught Shana Jack how to shoot, and jess Hull
she trained at my track, so she's done it before,
but she was in the gym as well, and it's
(11:22):
just so incredible being surrounded by so many like, like
minded people and honestly, and when we were walking to
the closing ceremony, I was talking with Jessica Fox.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
That was incredible. That was so cool.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
There can't be an Aussie that doesn't love Jessica Fox.
I would imagine, no, no, So I suppose the one
thing we should talk about is how you actually ended
up where you came so to speak. I mean, for
a first time athlete going to the Olympics of all things,
to finish where you finished was, I'd imagine you'd be
(11:59):
pretty stoked with it.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, I've got a lot of like mixed emotions really
about my result because my ranking round fence didn't really
go as I wanted it to, so that dragged my
points back by a lot, But the rest of it
I was really pleased with. Like, as you said, for
a first Olympics, there's so much pressure and it is
(12:23):
such an insane environment, Like you can never replicate riding
into the arena with fifteen thousand people live watching, Like
there's just nothing that will ever prepare you for that
other than doing it. So yeah, looking back, I'm happy
with my performance, but it's hard knowing that it could
have been better.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
You know, did nerves get the better of you with
that many people watching a.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Little in the ride?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
For sure, I'm a little bit of a nervous rider,
So I don't think that really helped, with having like
so many people watching and the fencing, it's just sometimes
it isn't your day in fencing, Like the distance and
the timing as wrong, and I made a couple of
bad decisions. But it's something that's like even if you
go back in time, you couldn't change because that's just
how it was, you know.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
So that means four years time is the is the
fire burning to go back and go better?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Oh God, you're asking like it's complicated. I'm not sure
if I'm going to be continuing in pentathlon. I have
a couple I've had mixed emotions of the sports for
the last couple of years. You really have to train
(13:38):
overseas for this sport and it can get quite isolating.
So I would really want to change training here and
I would want to try and train at home. So
there's like a couple of things I'd have to sort
out if I wanted to keep going, not just for
the Olympics, but just in general for pentathlon.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Would you potentially go to another sport or you know,
just choose one of the things, like you're swimming all
that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Absolutely, I've been looking at trying to do the fencing eventually,
like just by itself, whether or not I move like
maybe to Europe or the US for that. But yeah,
it's definitely a thought. You know, it would be cool.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
So I'm supposed to do all that. You're going to
need some money and being a receptionist, you know, I imagine
doesn't pay pay more than the bills and a little
bit of spending money as opposed to relocating to europort
the USA.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, exactly, that's the problem. I mean the US.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
I would try and get like a scholarship for fencing
at one of the colleges. You know, there's no point,
like it's such a hard thing to do. If you
don't love it, you're not going to be able to
push through on the harder days, because there's always going
to be hard days.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
You can hear. Genevieve van Renzberg is definitely at a
crossroads of her sporting destiny. Sponsors are more than welcome
to get in touch help her have less tough days
and more glory days, maybe at the LA Olympics in
four years time. That's all for now for iHeart Upper Hunter,
proudly supported by the new South Wales government. Catch you
(15:20):
next time.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
iHeart Alper Hunter.
Hunter, So obviously there are people that were training downstairs that, like,
you know, big names, so.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
When people watch you shooting, they want to have a go.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
So I was like so starstruck when like I taught
Shana Jack how to shoot, and then we were walking
to the closing ceremony.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's talking with Jessica Fox.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
So we all know the time and sacrifice it takes
to make the Australian Olympics team. Swimmers do lap after
lap focused on the black line on the bottom of
the pool. Marathon runners pound k after k to get
the endurance they need to go the distance. So why
on earth would you be crazy enough to select an
event that doesn't just have running and swimming, but also
(00:44):
the highly skilled sports are fencing, show jumping and laser
pistol shooting. That's the modern pentathlon and that's what drives
our guests today towards her sporting glory. Hello, I'm SAMs Albert,
sitting in for Darren KATRUPI and twenty year old Genevieve
van Rensurg hails from Singleton and she's recently returned from
an amazing experience at the Paris Olympics. It was her
(01:06):
first ever Games she was the only Aussie in the event,
and she has quite a few stories to tell about Paris,
especially around the village accommodation, which we'll get to later.
Genevieve positioned herself as high as ninth in the Olympic
competition out of thirty four athletes, and she had a
massive win over French girl Led Clavel in the fencing
(01:27):
round in front of the Paris crowd. She got as
high as the semi finals. But let's find out exactly
what it is about the modern pentathlon that first appealed
to Genevieve way back in her singleton's school days, when,
as Darren KTRUPI found out, Genevieve's fascination started with a
special guest making a visit to Assembly.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
The twenty sixteen Olympic champion, Chloe Esposito, came to my
school and did a talk at the sports awards, And
I was sitting in the crowd, and I'd done riding
and swimming my whole childhood, and I'd run for school.
So when she was like talking about all the like
all her experiences in training and overseas competitions.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I was like, wow, Like.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I could do that, Like it's only two more sports
and it sounds really cool. So the next year I
picked up fencing, and then to eighteen I joined a
pentathlon group and started doing the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Can you explain to people that don't know what is
modern pentathlon and what's involved?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Modern pentathlon is a multi sport event comprised of shooting, running, swimming,
fencing and previously horse riding, but now it's obstacle course
racing and you fence everyone to one point.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
You swim two hundred meters.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
You used to ride a show jumping course with a
meter ten. Now it's an obstacle course, so like I
think Australian Ninja war style, like with the wall and
the monkey bars, and then fencing bonus round and then
you run three kilometers every six hundred meters, you stop
(03:11):
and do fire like a five series of shooting.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Is there a favorite part of all that that you prefer?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I'm best at the swimming, but I enjoy the fencing.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Is a fencing hard It's only something I've ever seen
in the movies, and't it It looks extremely challenging.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
It's quite technical.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I think you have to have like a lot of
coordination with your body to like nowhere it's going. But
I picked it up very quickly, so bit biased?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Is there a lot of fencing done or again is
it sort of a little bit obscure You have to
really do some research to find somewhere doing it.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Mostly all the major cities in Australia will have fencing clubs.
Regionally it's a little kafer so in newcast we have
two clubs, but that's it.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
So you definitely have to look around and shooting.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Is that something that is just like, well, I've got
to do it, or we actually enjoy the challenge of
that as well.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I think it's a lot more neutral, like it's not no,
I don't have like negative feelings towards it, and it's
not positive. It's just very much like you just do it,
you know, because it's very much like either I know,
it's quite like consistent.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Really, So what.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Did you think when you were told you're in the
Australian Olympics team.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, I've found out as soon as I want, like
I jolling, and I already knew whoever wins that competition
will go. So I knew as soon as I crossed
the line. It was insane, like just knowing that I'd
made it after all those years.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
How much time and energy do you put into the training?
Imagine it's not just an hour a week.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
No, No, So since I like left school, I did
three or four sessions a day every day except Sunday.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Well, that's that's a lot of time in You've got
to keep a job as well. I imagine being a
modern pent athlete doesn't pay a.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Lot no, so I have a job as a like
a receptionist.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And then people also forget the amount of travels that
it takes to get to training, like so for me,
it's like an hour to it was an hour to riding,
it was two and a half hours to fencing, it
was like twenty thirty minutes to swimming. Like it all,
they're just small things that just add up.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
And are you allowed as an olympian to get sponsorship
to help out or.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yes, yes, of course.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I just found my struggle being that pentathlon isn't a
very like universe, Like it's not a massive sport, so
a lot of companies are less enthusiastic about sponsoring. And
I also personally am not super active on like social media,
which also makes a little harder.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Okay, so you get on the plane. How many people
are in the in the modern pentathlete women's team for Australia.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yes, it's just me at the moment.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Last year we had three girls for Australia and two
New Zealand girls. The other two have retired, but they
might be coming back in future. It just depends on
injury and like obscure course racing, how that goes.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
So tell us about Paris. You arrive in Paris, what
was the experience, like, you know, going into the Olympic
village for the first time and all that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, everyone always tells you how incredible it is when
you go into the village, and I don't think like
there's ever enough words describe how like how mind blowing
it is going into this village with like so many
thousands of athletes and staff and like the focus is
just on your performance. It's like you just go on
(07:02):
dining Hall's open twenty four seven. There's the wholes giant
team working to get like air con, mattress stoppers, food,
like you're just never prepared for just like the enormity
of it, Like it's just it was so incredible and
like there's nothing that will ever like equal that experience.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
More soon of our conversation with modern pentathletic Genevieve van
Rensburg from Singleton, now inspiring others to have a crack
at this incredibly unique sport.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
I Heart Upper Hunter, I Heart Apper Hunter.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Sam Talbot with you for this episode of iHeart Upper Hunter.
As we go back now to Darren Katrupi's chat with
Singleton's Genevieve van Rensburg, Paris olympian who did us proud?
And what was her first ever games in the modern pentathlon.
It's a crazy event of five sports that requires focus,
endurance and versatility, and Genevieve has all of that in
(08:01):
bucket loads. So what was the Paris experience like for
this talented twenty year old. More specifically, what were those
cardboard beds really like in the Olympic village? Were they
really as bad as some athletes were saying.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
I found the mattress was like recycled plastic, you know,
for environmental reasons. I just think that was a little hard.
But the actual like bed frame, like the cardboard bed
frame itself, like you didn't notice, and the air con
a lot of like the other teams were saying it
was quite hot in the rooms, but Australia provided air
cons for us, so it was really nice.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
And they gave you a mattress top of two I think.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, yeah, So if you found it too firm, you
could get a mattress topper from downstairs, or you could
go there was like a mattress store in the village
and they provided mattress toppers as well, so there was
a lot of options if it wasn't like right for you.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
And the food, how did you find it? You said
the food hall was open twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I loved it. It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Like I heard a lot of complaints before I went
in that like there wasn't enough protein, like there.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Was just not enough food.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But then when I went in, like a week and
a bit later, it was it was so good. I
loved it so much. It was delicious and the chocolate
muffins so good.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
I was about to ask you what was your go to?
So if I was to do a headline saying Genevieve
survived on chocolate muffins, would that be accurate or reinacurate?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It would be pretty active. I mean I had one.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I think with every meal minus breakfast and then oh
they were so good.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I don't think I'd like one other dessert the whole
time I was there. It was so good.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Okay, So how much time did you spend in the
village compared to competition, Like, was I meaning being in
multiple events? It must have been quite quite a time
consuming event to be part of, as opposed to you know,
just swim a fifty lap or something.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
So obviously when I moved in, I had training most
days to took out like a couple hours, so usually
the morning was gone by the time we got back
from training, and an actual competition day the fencing takes
like three to four hours, so like with travel and
warm up, it would have been about six. And then
(10:23):
my semi finals day, so the one where we were
out in Vasai, I think our bus left like five
or six.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
In the morning.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
I think I got back at nine or ten because
I stayed to watch the men's final.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Did you, I suppose, socialize or meet some of the
bigger names in the sports, and was there anyone you
I suppose we were a little bit star struck with.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I did a lot, like a lot of training for
shooting in the gym downstairs in our Australia gym because
it was a long way to travel to go to
the training facilities just to go shooting.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So obviously there were people.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
That were training downstairs that were like, you know, big names,
so when people watch you shooting, they want to have
a go. So I was like so starstruck when like
I taught Shana Jack how to shoot, and jess Hull
she trained at my track, so she's done it before,
but she was in the gym as well, and it's
(11:22):
just so incredible being surrounded by so many like, like
minded people and honestly, and when we were walking to
the closing ceremony, I was talking with Jessica Fox.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
That was incredible. That was so cool.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
There can't be an Aussie that doesn't love Jessica Fox.
I would imagine, no, no, So I suppose the one
thing we should talk about is how you actually ended
up where you came so to speak. I mean, for
a first time athlete going to the Olympics of all things,
to finish where you finished was, I'd imagine you'd be
(11:59):
pretty stoked with it.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, I've got a lot of like mixed emotions really
about my result because my ranking round fence didn't really
go as I wanted it to, so that dragged my
points back by a lot, But the rest of it
I was really pleased with. Like, as you said, for
a first Olympics, there's so much pressure and it is
(12:23):
such an insane environment, Like you can never replicate riding
into the arena with fifteen thousand people live watching, Like
there's just nothing that will ever prepare you for that
other than doing it. So yeah, looking back, I'm happy
with my performance, but it's hard knowing that it could
have been better.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
You know, did nerves get the better of you with
that many people watching a.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Little in the ride?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
For sure, I'm a little bit of a nervous rider,
So I don't think that really helped, with having like
so many people watching and the fencing, it's just sometimes
it isn't your day in fencing, Like the distance and
the timing as wrong, and I made a couple of
bad decisions. But it's something that's like even if you
go back in time, you couldn't change because that's just
how it was, you know.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
So that means four years time is the is the
fire burning to go back and go better?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Oh God, you're asking like it's complicated. I'm not sure
if I'm going to be continuing in pentathlon. I have
a couple I've had mixed emotions of the sports for
the last couple of years. You really have to train
(13:38):
overseas for this sport and it can get quite isolating.
So I would really want to change training here and
I would want to try and train at home. So
there's like a couple of things I'd have to sort
out if I wanted to keep going, not just for
the Olympics, but just in general for pentathlon.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Would you potentially go to another sport or you know,
just choose one of the things, like you're swimming all
that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Absolutely, I've been looking at trying to do the fencing eventually,
like just by itself, whether or not I move like
maybe to Europe or the US for that. But yeah,
it's definitely a thought. You know, it would be cool.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
So I'm supposed to do all that. You're going to
need some money and being a receptionist, you know, I imagine
doesn't pay pay more than the bills and a little
bit of spending money as opposed to relocating to europort
the USA.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, exactly, that's the problem. I mean the US.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
I would try and get like a scholarship for fencing
at one of the colleges. You know, there's no point,
like it's such a hard thing to do. If you
don't love it, you're not going to be able to
push through on the harder days, because there's always going
to be hard days.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
You can hear. Genevieve van Renzberg is definitely at a
crossroads of her sporting destiny. Sponsors are more than welcome
to get in touch help her have less tough days
and more glory days, maybe at the LA Olympics in
four years time. That's all for now for iHeart Upper Hunter,
proudly supported by the new South Wales government. Catch you
(15:20):
next time.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
iHeart Alper Hunter.
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