What can I do to show I have a great potential even if I had one bad academic year?

One rough year definitely doesn’t erase everything you’ve done before admissions people and even employers look at the whole picture, not just one dip.

Explain it briefly if you apply to college/jobs. Keep it short, don’t overshare, just give context.

Highlight consistency - show your strong results in earlier years + sports/ECs to prove you’ve been dedicated long-term.

Show recovery - if you can pull your grades up even a little before the year ends, it signals resilience.

Lean on recommendations - teachers/coaches can back up your potential and talk about your drive beyond grades.

One bad year is just a chapter, not the whole book. If anything, bouncing back will make your story stronger.

If you can, it would be best to briefly explain the personal reasons in the additional information section. Many personal reasons can be considered as unique circumstances, and colleges can take them into consideration when reviewing your application. In terms of the year alone, working on an upward trend with your performance in terms of grades and extracurriculars is a good idea. Having good personal connections with the people who recommend you can help as well, as they will likely be able to highlight things like personal drive, motivation, potential, etc. If your low results pertain to an upcoming test, you can also show improvement with a better score, such as if you did badly on a senior year result in english but did better on a standardized test afterwards. Overall, a ton of people struggle at some point in their academic career, and the main goal should be getting back on your feet and showing that you won't let a bad result hurt your spirit in continuing!