Potts was selected to compete for the Australian squad at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, shooting in both individual and team recurve tournaments. First, he recorded 666 points, 37 perfect tens, and 13 bull's eyes to take the twentieth seed heading to the knockout draw from the classification round, along with his team's cumulative score of 2,005. Sitting at fourth to move directly through the quarterfinals in the men's team recurve, Alec and his compatriots Ryan Tyack and London 2012 Olympian Taylor Worth confidently beat the Frenchmen with a 5–3 for the semifinals, before they were soundly beaten by the tournament favorites South Korea in straight sets (0–6). Bouncing back from their semifinal loss, the Australian trio held off a late reaction from China in the bronze medal match (6–2) to secure the country's first ever Olympic podium finish in a team archery event. In the men's individual recurve, Potts was unable to overcome local archer Bernardo Oliveira by the loud applause of the parochial crowd in the opening round, thereby eliminating him from the tournament 4–6.