Only the world’s best triathlete Beth Potter would be able to reconfigure a debilitating foot injury into a reawakening for the sport she loves so much.
The Scot suffered a torn plantar fascia, a severe stress reaction in her fourth metatarsal and a bone spur at the Weihai World Triathlin Championship Series event in November last year.
She stubbornly ploughed on to the Grand Final in Wollongong just three weeks later but was forced to leave the course in a wheelchair, leaving her unable to sleep properly for three months and jeopardising the start to her 2026 season.
The Glasgow athlete said: “I had to finish the season off at the Grand Final, but didn't do any running going into it. I think I almost pulled it off.
“I don't think it was actually my foot that was stopping me because it was actually feeling a bit better by that point, because I'd rested it for three weeks. I think I actually had a bit of an illness, like a cold or something like that, because I came down pretty hard the next couple of days.
“That was frustrating. Going into that winter, I just had to focus on my swim and bike.”
But it is running that has always been Potter’s favourite leg sport of the three.
The 34-year-old began her sporting career as a long-distance runner, competing for Team GB at the 2016 Olympics in the 10,000m, before she transitioned to triathlon in 2017.
Since then, she has completed the World Championships medal set, won two bronze medals at the Paris Olympics in 2024, and is now the top-ranked triathlete in the world.
She said: “Running just makes me feel different - it makes me feel more alive. I think having not been able to do that for so long made me realise how big a part of my life it is and how it makes me feel. And I'm just not taking it for granted.
“I couldn't even walk my dog at times, because my foot was so sore. I was really surprised by how quickly the running came back.”
That resurgent strength has been resplendent at the beginning of this season, as Potter backed up a WTCS win in Samarkand with two second-place finishes in Yokohama and Alghero.
And this summer, the WTCS circuit returns to London for the first time in 11 years, as part of the T100 weekend that brings celebrity faces and the public together for a big triathlon celebration.
Potter said: “I've had a really good start to the season.
“It was only 10 days before that first race, and I left the track in tears because I could barely walk. So I was just taking it race by race. To win at the first race shows I'm there and I'm pushing the pace.
“So yeah, I think it definitely surpassed where I thought I was at. I’m just happy that I could deliver those few results and also stay pretty much in one piece as well. That's been the most important thing.”
Watch British stars, including Alex Yee, race the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) London on Saturday 25 July. As part of the third London T100 Triathlon weekend that will also see 5,300 amateurs swim, bike and run around the capital. The elite women start at 1430, the men go at 1615, with live coverage on Triathlonlive.tv in the UK.
