Olympics 2024: Rio, running & the Brownlees – Beth Potter’s road to Paris

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Olympics 2024: Rio, running & the Brownlees – Beth Potter’s road to Paris

But where do you start when it comes to changing your sport at the elite level?

For Potter, it was a case of moving to Leeds to train with double Olympic gold medallist Alistair Brownlee and his brother Jonny, who himself has a medal of each colour from London, Rio and Tokyo.

The Scot stayed for a spell at Jonny’s house, trained more than she ever had before, while still teaching part time in a secondary school.

“It is really amazing how far she has come,” Alistair tells BBC Sport.

“I was really impressed by her dedication. She was training for three sports for 20-30 hours a week, while still working, and was new to the sport and maybe making people feel a little bit threatened.

“But there is one thing you can definitely say about Beth, she is very determined.”

Nowhere was that more clear in her approach to mastering the cycling leg of triathlon.

While running and swimming came naturally, Potter was not familar with road bikes.

“There is a lot of stuff on social media about Beth not having a bike as a child, which isn’t true,” says dad Alex. “She had cycled but she had never owned a road bike.

“But she is very driven, and woe betide if you suggest doing something that interferes with her training. Once she goes for something, she commits.”

“You can’t just be average on the bike – you have to be one of the better ones,” Brownlee adds. “So to get to where she has got is really impressive.

“She has won loads of races over the last few years, and if she can just do that in Paris she will be the Olympic gold medallist.”

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