When Flora Duffy won an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021, she achieved every young athlete’s dream.

But that victory was just the culmination of more than a decade of sustained success that makes her the greatest triathlete of all time and one of the world’s most decorated athletes.

Duffy’s Olympic gold medal was bookended by Commonwealth Games golds in Gold Coast, Australia, and Birmingham, England, with those victories complementing four World Triathlon titles, six Xterra World Championships and two ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships.

Her victory in Japan means Bermuda occupies a special place in history as the smallest country by population to produce an Olympic gold medal. That was something she relished.

“It’s not just my medal, it is our medal,” Duffy declared after her victory.

“Thank you to everyone back in Bermuda who has been supporting me. It was pretty cool to see that raw emotion from everyone. I know how much it means for everyone in Bermuda and I have seen messages and video from people back home going crazy.”

Duffy’s connection to home is something she has never lost despite spending most of her time away, and many of the 60,000-odd people on this island will have special memories of her.

Bermudians watched Duffy, now 38, grow up and many raced alongside her. She first competed in the Front Street Mile at the age of 9 and got her first taste of the sport she would go on to dominate by taking part in the Clarien Iron Kids triathlon.

And those people that chased her home during her schooldays cheered her home on the streets of Hamilton in November 2022, when she stormed to an emotional victory and beat the best in the world in the World Triathlon Championship Series on home soil before winning her final world championship a month later.

By then the world had become accustomed to Duffy crossing the line first, but it is worth remembering that success did not always come easy for Bermuda’s golden girl.

The future looked bright after she finished second at the Junior Triathlon World Championships in 2006 but she failed to finish at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and then finished 45th after falling during the bike leg at the 2012 Games in London, where she was hoping for at least a top-ten finish.

“It sucks and I’m not very happy,” Duffy told The Royal Gazette after the race in London.

“It was totally out of my control, I was right at the front of the group but going through that corner a girl went down and I went down on top of her. Maybe I should have got up quicker but I was hurt and at that point I was totally out it. It feels like four years down the drain.”

But every true champion has to overcome adversity. From 2014 onwards the victories started to flow and the records started to crumble with Duffy winning the first of her six Xterra world titles.

Even that race did not go smoothly after she fell during the mountain bike leg, but she picked herself up to win by more than two minutes, the emotion cracking her voice as she explained the significance of the victory.

“I’ve dreamt of being a world champion since I was 8 years old, so to make that dream a reality today is pretty special,” she said.

“Particularly coming from Bermuda, I think I’m the first world champion, hence why I grabbed the flag and just had so much Bermudian pride.

“It means a lot to me to do this from Bermuda, we’re a small little country and I love to represent them and put them on the map. So it’s a huge day for me.”

She went on to win further Xterra world championships in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021, supplementing those victories with wins in the ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships in 2015 and 2016.

But it is performances in the ITU World Triathlon Championships and the Olympic Games when most athletes carve their name into the consciousness of the casual sports fan.

Despite finishing a disappointing eighth in the Rio Olympics in 2016, just weeks later she executed one of the all-time great sporting performances by a Bermudian to win the ITU World Triathlon Series championships in Cozumel, Mexico.

“I’m kind of speechless right now,” Duffy said after the race. “I have no idea how that happened. You always hope and wish and train for the perfect day. The perfect day came exactly when I needed it, when the pressure was on.

“Anything is possible. I hope this inspires, no matter where you’re from, a little country, you can be up there with the best.”

She went on to retain her crown a year later before adding further world championship titles in 2021 and 2022.

In recognition of her sporting excellence, Duffy was appointed a Dame in the New Year’s Honours list in 2022, collecting her gong from the Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace.

Bermuda’s National Stadium has already been named after her, along with the former Corkscrew Hill — the most gruelling part of the bike leg in the World Triathlon Championship Series event in Bermuda.

She was greeted by massive crowds during a parade after winning the Tokyo Olympics, where she was fittingly accompanied by Bermuda’s first Olympic medal-winner, heavyweight boxer Clarence Hill, whose 1976 bronze medal meant he is the only other Bermudian to know what it feels like to mount an Olympic podium.

After two years of suffering with injuries and contemplating retirement, Duffy briefly gave hope of an incredible swan song at her fifth Olympics in Paris in 2024. After a hugely interrupted preparation, she had us all thinking the impossible could happen when exiting the water first and holding a lead on the bike leg before her lack of training told.

That race will rightly be forgotten when people talk about Dame Flora Duffy in years to come, but talk they will of Bermuda’s greatest athlete.