It has been a busy few months for Eva Potts, and the talented Newcastle swimmer is only getting started.
In May, the Redhead 17-year-old led Australia’s medal count at the Oceania Swimming Championships in Fiji, her first international meet.
This week, Potts is competing alongside the country’s best emerging talent at the Next Wave Invitational at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.
Next week, the NUSwim Swimming Club competitor will be in the United States for the Speedo Sectionals in California, where she will get a taste of what the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 could look like.
All will provide valuable experience as the butterfly and backstroke specialist pursues an Olympics dream.
“LA 2028 would be great,” Potts told the Newcastle Herald ahead of the Next Wave Invitational in Canberra.
“It’s a big step in terms of it only being two years away, but it’ll just depend on how my progression goes.
“If it goes the same way it’s been going, then potentially, but I think Swimming Australia is focusing on our age group for 2032.”
Potts, a year 12 student at Hamilton’s St Francis Xavier College, trains seven times a week under coach Sander Ganzevles at the NUsport Performance Centre at Newcastle University and has shown steady improvement in the past couple of years.
She won her first national title at the Australian Age Championships for long course racing in the 16-years girls’ 50-metre butterfly in April last year.
In October, Potts broke the 16-years girls’ national All-comers record for 50m butterfly at the Australian short course championships in Melbourne.
At this year’s Australian Age Championships on the Gold Coast in April, Potts was the 17-years girls’ 50m butterfly and 100m backstroke champion. She came second in her age group in the 50m backstroke and 100m butterfly.
At the Australian swimming trials for the Commonwealth Games in Sydney in June, Potts tested herself against current Olympians and made the open women’s B final of the 50m butterfly.
Her first Australian team selection followed impressive national performances and the Newcastle teenager returned from the Oceania Championships in Suva in May with three individual gold medals, one silver and four relay medals.
She was also invited to attend the Swimming Australia Next Wave competition camp in Canberra, which began on Friday and finishes on Thursday.
“It’s a great opportunity for me,” Potts said.
“I’m really excited to go and train with the other top age-group kids and race them all.
“Essentially, it’s an intensive competition camp, so we go to the AIS for a week and race morning and night. It will be four to six races a day.”
The whirlwind continues in the United States.
Two days after returning from Canberra, Potts will be among a contingent of Swimming NSW Performance Centre athletes who are headed to California for international race and travel experience ahead of the LA Games.
