Who is Beth Potter: Background, career highlights, quotes

By Rob Slade

Published: Monday, 14 February 2022 at 12:00 am

Scottish triathlete Beth Potter may be a relative newcomer to the triathlon scene, but she’s been starting to draw attention following a string of impressive performances.

Here, we delve into her background, career highlights and take a look at what’s next.

Who is Beth Potter?

Beth Potter is a professional triathlete from Scotland. She started here sporting life as a swimmer before moving over to running. Track and field proved to be her focus for the years that followed.

She represented Scotland in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, competing in the 5,000m (finishing 18th) and 10,000m (finishing fifth) track events. In 2016 she headed to Brazil to compete in the Olympic Games in Rio for Team GB in the 10,000m event and finished in 34th.

In 2017 Potter took the decision to switch her focus to triathlon and take on the huge depth of talent at British Triathlon’s disposal. Her first International Triathlon Union (ITU) win came in the 2017 ETU Sprint Triathlon European Cup in Funchal, Madeira.

Over the following year, Potter raced in a range of triathlon world cups and competed in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, where she placed 12th in the individual women’s race and seventh in the mixed relay.

The following year she won the European Triathlon Union (ETU) Triathlon European Championships in May 2019, after which she got her first taste of the highest level of the sport at the ITU World Triathlon race in Edmonton later that summer (finishing 14th).

The Scot made it to the starting line of a handful of races in a pandemic-impacted 2020, including a win at the World Cup race in Valencia, and made headlines the following spring with an unofficial road 5km world record after running it in 14:41.

Not long after, Potter was winning the Super League Triathlon Arena Games in London and placing second at the same event in Rotterdam. A handful of World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) races followed, including Leeds (seventh) and Abu Dhabi (seventh).

Before the season was out, she’d also finished fourth in the Super League Triathlon series and won two World Triathlon Cups.