Beth Potter doesn't need to look too far for Olympic inspiration.

For the first time since London 2012 there will not be a Brownlee on the Olympic triathlon podium, but their influence remains.

Potter will start among the favourites in the women's race on Wednesday and the 32-year-old Scot makes no secret of the influence of Britain's greatest triathletes.

Her training partners and mentors, Potter has a hot line to the brothers, who won three golds, one silver and a bronze between them in London, Rio, and Tokyo.

"They’ve prepared me for all eventualities, and I feel quite a peace with everything, I need to just rest and recover now," said Potter.

“I watched them in Rio while sat drinking out of a coconut on the Copacabana. I then met two of their coaches in McDonald’s and spoke about the opportunity of going up to Leeds which is where it sparked.

"I’m really confident in my team, we’ve got great training partners and coaches and I really believe that the training I’ve done has put in the best possible position to go for gold."

Potter’s attention to detail in all elements of her preparation - from training to diet - is legendary and she starts among the favourites in the women's triathlon, which starts with a River Seine swim before a bike and run that weave between Paris' postcard landmarks.

But on the eve of her second Olympic appearance, it's perhaps hard to tell and, in the final days before her competition, she's finding it hard to keep a train of thought.

"I'm sorry," she says. "I just lost track of that sentence."

But don't doubt her single-minded vision for success here in the French capital. In Rio she finished 34th in the women's 10000m final, making the decision to switch sports six months later.

In 2023, she enjoyed a year to remember, winning the Olympic test event ahead of Cassandre Beaugrand and Laura Lindemann and then claiming her first world title in Pontevedra a few weeks later.

Two third places in the World Triathlon Series this season underline her podium potential, but the women's race is so wide open you could make a strong case for more than ten athletes in the field.

"Going to Paris last year and winning has certainly given me confidence but nothing is guaranteed. However, if I get things right I know I’ll be hard to beat," she added.

"I’ve not been quite myself the last two races, I felt I’ve been missing something but I’ve confident that I’ve found it. I just want to get racing now.

"I feel like the pressure is bit off me because she’s won the last two races of the calendar but maybe that’s the plan. I like knowing I’ve got a target on my back, I put more pressure on myself than other people do. I want to prove that I can do it."

Potter is s one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games. 

Potter admits her first Olympic experience didn't live up to the dream of her teenage years in Bearsden when all she wanted was to go to the Games. All those hours of sweat and toil, and the night before her race she was laid low with stomach bug.

Her feeling of disappointment only fuelled her desire to write a different script. It was a risk, but the reward has paid dividends.

"I knew pretty quickly that needed to do something different," she recalled. "I wanted to throw myself into something completely new that was out of my comfort zone - and that was triathlon.

"I could obviously run, and I swum competitively as a kid, and I assumed cycling would be easy to pick up. I started from ground zero and the first two years were very tough but it's what I needed."

The Brownlee brothers were famously hard on each other - their sibling rivalry proving a potent cocktail in their domination of the sport.

"They toughen you up, especially mentally. They are winners, they expect a certain mentality with the people they train with," added Potter. Their biggest advice - make sure you've got no regrets.”

With more than £30M a week raised for Good Causes, including vital funding into elite and grassroots sport, National Lottery players support our Olympic and Paralympic athletes to live their dreams and make the nation proud, as well as providing more opportunities for people to take part in sport.  To find out more visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk