Take Five: Triathlete Andy Potts

By Rob Miech

Friday, June 6, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Andy Potts usually makes an impression wherever he goes, and that’s how it was at UNLV in 2000 and 2001, when he assisted Rebels swim coach Jim Reitz.

Potts oversaw the female sprinters. One day, Reitz found them all crying. A six-time All-America swimmer at the ultracompetitive University of Michigan program, Potts knows no middle gears.

“He goes, ‘I don’t care,’ ” Reitz says. “By the end of the year, those girls loved him and they went really fast.”

Potts’ intensity has shown in the triathlon, in which he became an Olympian in Greece after seriously participating in the grueling event for only 22 months.

He emerged from Oceanida Bay, near Athens, ahead of everyone. He finished 22nd.

On June 22, at a World Cup event in Des Moines, Iowa, he has a chance to clinch a spot on the U.S. roster for the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

“Once a Rebel, always a Rebel,” Reitz says. “We keep in touch. His problem isn’t training hard, it’s training without hurting himself. He could burn himself right into the ground.”

1. High energy

A six-time NCAA All-America swimmer, Potts prospered in the heated environment that legendary coach Jon Urbanchek cultivated at Michigan. Teammates occasionally fought. Sometimes they worked out with the Wolverine wrestlers. “They were like the Special Forces,” Reitz says. Potts became restless when his swimming eligibility expired, so he walked onto the track team. He competed in the 800 in 1999-2000.

2. Viva Las Vegas

Potts came to Las Vegas with girlfriend Lisa Simes, a gymnast at Michigan who landed a job as a trapeze artist in Cirque du Soleil’s “O” at the Bellagio. Again, he became restless. He toured Europe with a friend, worked in construction and toiled for a payroll services company. He wasn’t challenged.

3. Hello, triathlon

Reitz once joked with Potts: You’re a top swimmer. You ran in college. Ever ride a bike? “Lo and behold, he got some sponsors,” Reitz says. Potts picked up the triathlon in 2002 and became the first rookie to crack the world top-100 ranking (ranked No. 90) a year later. He finished first or second in eight of nine events in 2007.

4. Sidetracked

Potts and Simes married in January 2004. After the Athens games, on their belated honeymoon to Greece’s Santorini islands, she had him feel a lump in her neck. It turned out to be thyroid cancer. It had metastasized to her lungs, but treatment worked. Tests show no further signs of cancer. “We’re human,” she told The New York Times. “We have to appreciate what we have.”

5. No distractions

After Reitz tried for weeks to reach Potts, the triathlete recently sent an e-mail. Sorry. Busy training. Can we talk after the Olympic trials process is finished? He spends more than four hours a day in the pool, on a stationary bike and running. His wife’s perseverance and their 13-month-old boy, Boston, fuel his quest to get to Beijing.