Dame Flora Duffy says she is at a “crossroads” in her triathlon career as she struggles to overcome another long-term injury.

The 2021 Olympic champion admits that retirement may be forced upon her after finding it difficult to recover from an Achilles problem that has limited her to only one race in 2025. She has yet to resume running nearly seven months after pulling out of a T100 World tour event in Singapore.

During a dark few weeks, Duffy admits she thought that her time competing at the highest level had come to an end, but she is not quite ready to call it quits.

“A couple of times this year it got to the point where I thought I was done,” Duffy said on the Chasing The Burn podcast.

“I know I said that five years ago when I was injured, but I knew then I wasn’t serious with myself, and now I’m older and towards the end of my career.

“In July, I was serious about being done and I don’t really know why I’ve changed my mind. One part of me thinks that I still have some good racing left in me and that I can still be one of the best in the world. But another part of me thinks that could be delusional.

“I am just assessing my options and seeing if I can get back to running pain-free. If I can get back to a baseline level and my body feels good, then I could entertain another year — but I’m really at a crossroads at the moment.”

Duffy, 38, was looking forward to 2025 and her first full year of competing on the T100 World tour, a longer form of the sport, but her injury has left her pretty much inactive during the summer.

“I had such high hopes and I was actually really excited to race on the T100 circuit and then it all fell apart rather quickly,” Duffy said.

“I came back to Boulder after Singapore and what I thought was going to be just a pretty simple Achilles issue has dragged on until now. I’m sitting here in November and it feels like I have no updates. I keep waiting for these changes to happen, but I feel as if I’m in the same boat as I was in April.

“I went for an ultrasound and saw that there was a tear in May. I had an injection into that and at the time I thought, ‘Man, this is going to set me back so much and I’m not going to be able to race as soon as I want’.

“I was so stressed about that, but I came back, got into my rehab, which went pretty well and there were moments when I felt I was definitely going to be able to race this year, but every time I tried to do some regular running outside it just didn’t work and I was in so much pain.

“It got to August and I was no different, so that’s when it became quite a crisis. My swimming and biking had tanked because I was emotionally and mentally exhausted, and there were some very low points.

“I watched the leaves bloom in Boulder and now they have turned magical colours, fallen off the trees and I have not progressed at all.”

Duffy is no stranger to long-term injury after missing more than a year with a knee problem in the build-up to the last of her five Olympic appearances, in Paris in 2024, but the overriding emotion she has experienced this time around is guilt

“I knew how much work this would take and the mental and emotional toll of it,” she said. “It’s tough missing races and having to tell your sponsors you are injured again; you feel like you are letting everybody down.

“The overwhelming emotion in this process is guilt. There is frustration and trauma, but there is guilt towards sponsors, the T100 tour and even to yourself.

“As a professional athlete, I am paid by my sponsors to be out there training, racing, performing and posting about it on social media. You want to show the bad times as well as the good, but if your bad times go on this long, it’s hard to feel like you are living up to expectations and delivering. That starts to weigh on you, as I have signed contracts and it is my job to race, so you do feel guilty.”

As another frustrating year draws to a close, Duffy is unsure what 2026 holds, but talk of retirement will remain on the horizon.

“Every athlete has a time limit and mostly you can choose when you want to stop,” she said.

“But if my body can’t hold up to the training needed for me to be the best in the world at what I do, then I don’t want to do it.

“I am keeping the option open of racing in 2026. I have some mountain bike options, and that is influencing my decision. I guess my ultimate goal would be to get healthy, get training and do one or two triathlons next year to see where I am at, and then I might decide, ‘That’s it. I got back, but now I’m good.”