Olympic gold medal-winner Flora Duffy was praised by senators during a short session of the Upper House yesterday.

Supporting a proclamation that a public holiday be held on October 18 in honour of the triathlete, Independent senator Michelle Simmons said the day was “a most fitting honour that we should celebrate Flora Duffy and her Olympic accomplishment”.

“I think it’s important for us to recognise and understand that her success in the Tokyo Olympics was not an accident – it has been the culmination of years and years of hard work, determination, dedication.

“Becoming an Olympic champion is not something that happens by chance or luck or overnight. It is something that you build up over years of hard work. She deserves the accolades of our entire community.”

Opposition senate leader Ben Smith said that Ms Duffy had shown perseverance in pursuing her goal.

“That’s something that we should hold up for all of our community to look at,” he said.

“The celebration that I hope we are going to be able to have for Flora and her accomplishment is the first step in realising what Bermudians can accomplish if all of us are supportive of each other.

“It has not always been that sport gets the support that is needed for us to get the accomplishment that Flora reached.

“I’m hoping that when we celebrate, it opens our eyes to what the possibilities are and what happens if we as a community support our young people to reach the highest heights.”

The only other piece of legislation to come before senators was an order extending Covid public measures, which was presented by Arianna Hodgson, the junior Minister of Health.

For the Opposition, Robin Tucker asked what the Government was doing to encourage more people to get vaccinated.

Senator Hodgson replied that there had been “increased interest’ in the vaccination programme in recent weeks.

The order was approved.