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“I BELIEVE WOMEN CAN DO IT ALL”
By Melissa Siegelaar | Photography: Je’nine May
Capetonian Genevieve Lentz is making history as the first woman from Africa to referee table tennis at the Olympic Games
Genevieve Lentz was born in Bonteheuwel, Cape Town. Now, she’s gracing the international stage as the first woman from the African continent to referee table tennis at the 2020 Olympic Games since the inception of the Olympics in 1896.
“I believe women can do it all,” says Lentz, who is officiating matches at the Olympics being held in Tokyo, Japan.
Lentz was raised in a strong matriarchal family. From early on, they recognised that Lentz and her siblings had the academic potential to further their education. Her grandmother nurtured their academic abilities by prioritising homework and studying after school hours.
When she matriculated and her family could not afford to pay for her university studies, Lentz secured a job as a receptionist. Her grandmother approached the Moravian Church Board in Bonteheuwel, of which she was a member, for help with Lentz’s registration fees at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). They agreed and Lentz enrolled for a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Language and Communication Studies.
She completed that degree and a BA Honours in English at UWC. Next, she attained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education as well as a BTech Degree in Public Relations from the University of South Africa
(Unisa). In 2021, she graduated with a Masters degree in Education summa cum laude from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Lentz credits her family’s tenacity, boldness and faith as an inspiration for her to chase her dreams. “My mother had strong faith in God and trusted that He would take care of us,” she says.
Lentz and her sister started playing table tennis in primary school and enjoyed the competitive nature of the sport. In 1999, they joined the Boundary Table Tennis Club in Bonteheuwel and it was at one of their tournaments that Lentz got the opportunity to umpire a match for the first time. By 2006, she’d already qualified to umpire at the provincial and national level in South Africa, so she applied to the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) to write the international umpire exam. This helped her qualify to umpire at international World Championship events and she later went on to do the advanced umpire’s exam in Yokohama, Japan in 2009. After four evaluations at international table tennis events, she qualified as a blue badge umpire.
Blue badge umpires are elite umpires who may officiate at Olympic Games and Lentz has made good on this unique opportunity, officiating as an umpire at three Olympic Games: the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, China, the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore and the 2012 London Olympics. The South African Table Tennis Board (SATTB) identified Lentz to complete the national referee’s course in Sudan in 2015 and, in 2017, she was the only female to pass the international referee’s exam in Egypt — making her the first female table tennis referee from the African continent. The 2020 Olympic Games will be the first Olympic Games where she will officiate as a Deputy Referee.
“I see my progress in table tennis as a step forward for women but it is also a giant leap for womankind.
“I wanted to be part of dispelling the myths of table tennis as a Cinderella sport,” she adds about her myriad professional achievements and the recent media attention she has garnered.
Having worked as an English teacher for 15 years at St Andrews High School in Elsies River and as an English lecturer at CPUT since 2018, she is now pursuing an academic career and has also enrolled for a PhD in Education at CPUT.
Her passion for education — both for herself and the young people in her community — has inspired her to start a non-profit company with her sisters, Leandre and Monique, and two friends from the Bonteheuwel community. Called Dreamspire, the non-profit focuses on mentoring young people in grade 9 and up, helping them to access higher education for when they leave school.
As the CEO of Dreamspire, she rallied her friends and other locals to assist withmaking this vision a reality and the organisation is now in the process of approaching donors for assistance.
Lentz and her hardworking team are working diligently on their vision of showing learners how to achieve their goals. “We want learners to dream big and we want to use our networks to help them reach those dreams.
“We envisage journeying with them over a four-year period to empower them with the proper tools to make informed career choices and guide them through the correct channels, ensuring that there is a support structure for the learner throughout their high school career.”
Asked about her next steps, she says she is excited to see Dreamspire make an impact on the community but, for now, her focus is on her next assignment at the 2020 Olympic Games where she hopes to make her family, community, country and the African continent proud.
