The most important member of Bermuda’s Pan American Games will not be in the water, on the track or riding a bike and she will probably never make it in front of the television cameras.

Yet Julia Hawley, who has taken on the role of chef de mission for the Games in Chile, has the job of ensuring the island’s elite athletes can perform to their best by taking care of the little things, and it is a role that does not end when the opening ceremony gets underway at 8.30pm tonight.

“I would liken a chef de mission to a chief executive in the corporate world,” Hawley said.

“We’re responsible for the team and managing all the logistics. Team managers are responsible for the individual athletes, but I am making sure that all the noise around the athletes is sorted and they don’t have to worry about anything. All our athletes and team managers should be focusing on is their events.”

Hawley has worked tirelessly this year as she attempts to ensure that the Games go as smoothly as possible.

“The planning starts in advance and I have been working on this for months and months,” Hawley said.

“This is a very large Games and second only to the Olympics. There are going to be more than 6,000 athletes in Chile, so the logistics of dealing with the Games themselves is a lot of work.

“Part of my role was to go down to Chile for an advanced planning session and I saw the village, which was quite large, so I wanted to make sure that I asked for apartments close to where you eat because I didn’t want my athletes walking miles.

“Things like recovery, massage and laundry, I do all the day-to-day things to make sure that everybody is taken care of.”

A cyclist at the 2003 Pan Am Games in Dominican Republic and the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Hawley knows what it takes to compete at the highest level, but she leans more on her experience as chef de mission at the 2021 Junior Pan Am Games in Colombia to prepare for the Santiago event.

“It’s always great to have experience of being an athlete at a major Games but more importantly for me was my time as chef at the Junior Pan Am Games as there were considerable challenges there,” Hawley said.

“That was the biggest way I learned about resolution of issues. In terms of being an athlete, you do have ideas and it’s nice that all of the managers, secretary general and president are in touch with the athletes and have a different perspective.

“The biggest thing is that if you have been an athlete at that level, you know the stresses that are involved, so you know when to be with an athlete and team manager and more importantly know when not to be with them because the stresses are incredibly high and you don’t want to be in the way. When you’ve been an athlete you can recognise those things.

“Santiago is an amazing city and there will probably be a few little hiccups but I think the games will run smoothy. Any hiccup that does happen I will deal with it. There is nothing that can be presented to me that I feel I couldn’t resolve.”

The planning and preparation for major Games has changed since Covid with athletes no longer staying in the village for weeks to attend the opening and closing ceremonies, which makes Hawley’s job more difficult than in decades past.

“The modern Games, and this all started around Covid, is that they are in and out so you come in for your event and then you leave. The swimmers, for example, start on day one and the competition goes for five days. They can stay for the five days but have to leave the day after the swimming competition ends.

“We have swimming and cycling there for the opening and the remaining three sports are at the closing.

“The other aspect of Games now is satellite locations, so not everybody is in the village these days and that does change the dynamic. Two sports of our five have athletes who are never going to see the village.”

While Hawley will be keeping a close eye on all Bermuda’s athletes, she can be forgiven if her concentration wanes just slightly during the two hours it takes to complete the women’s triathlon, with her daughter Erica the island’s sole representative.

“I’m nervous and excited for all the athletes,” Hawley said.

“When I think about my time at Pan Am Juniors, they all worked so hard and I wanted them to succeed.

“The good thing is Erica has been doing it for a few years now and for a couple as a professional, she’s raced so much. I’m there very much for the team but for her race of course I’m excited and nervous.

“I’m a terrible watcher and I know all of the athletes pretty well now. As a parent you see it and as a chef it is exactly the same, you just want them to have the best race that they are capable of.

“Our athletes are young but the time and sacrifice involved in getting to this level is huge and most of them are now professionals. This is what they do and you just want to see them realise the investment that they have made into it.

“It’s the proudest thing in the world to be the chef and be part of the Bermuda team. To watch all of these great young kids delivering on the world stage is amazing.”