HAMILTON, Bermuda – An elated Flora Duffy, Bermuda’s first Olympic gold medal winner, has described receiving a damehood in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List as “surreal and special” to cap off a “beautiful” 2020.
Bermuda’s Olympic champion, Flora Duffy.Duffy, 34, said she was surprised to be told that she would be recognized as Dame Commander of the British Empire for her services to sport in Bermuda.
“I was told about five weeks ago as I prepared for my final race [of 2021],” Duffy, whose phenomenal career soared to dizzying heights last year, told the Royal Gazette newspaper on Monday.
“It was really nice to hear that and very special to receive it for my service to sport in Bermuda. It’s pretty incredible the places that sport has taken me and what doors it has opened.
“I am really happy and excited and looking forward to going to the formal ceremony [at Buckingham Palace in London]. It has really capped off a beautiful year, and it was a great way to end 2021.”
The Honours List said Duffy was recognized for “her exceptional contribution” to sport in Bermuda, including her victory in the women’s triathlon at the Tokyo Olympics last summer, having failed to medal in her three previous attempts in Beijing (2008), London (2012) and Rio de Janeiro (2016).
Last year she also won a record-equaling third World Triathlon Championship Series title, an unprecedented sixth Xterra World Championship title and also captured glory on her debut at the Super League Triathlon championship series finale.
Duffy, who has not ruled out another Olympic shot in Paris in 2024, was the first triathlete to be crowned the World and Olympic Champion in the same year.
In honor of her outstanding accomplishments, Duffy was greeted on her arrival home from Tokyo weeks later by a motorcade at the airport.
A one-off national holiday was also held in her honor in October, while the National Sports Centre’s South Field and Corkscrew Hill – a steep road used for international triathlons – were renamed as the Flora Duffy Stadium and Flora Duffy Hill respectively.
A special two-stamp issue honored her Olympic achievement.
The Flora Gold Fund to back future athletes was also set up with initial support from drinks firm Gosling’s Limited.
The company will continue to donate proceeds from its Flora Gold rum to the fund, which could amount to a total of US$100,000.
Clarien Bank and Bermuda-based rum firm Bacardi both donated $10,000 to the Flora Fund, which was set up in her honor.
The charity was launched in 2018 by Duffy with the Bermuda Community Foundation and is designed to help established and aspiring athletes with equipment, training, fees, event registration and coaching.
Duffy received an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for her contributions to Bermuda sports in 2018 after winning gold in the women’s triathlon at that year’s Commonwealth Games in Australia.
She divides her time between Bermuda, her training camp in Boulder, Colorado, and South Africa, her husband Dan Hugo’s home country.
