Dame Flora Duffy was delighted to have been named among the world’s most fittest athletes by Sports Illustrated.

The Bermudian triathlete made the star-studded list of the world’s top 50 best conditioned athletes comprising the top 25 male and female athletes.

Duffy has been ranked eleventh among the female category, which includes other athletes such as gymnast Simone Biles, tennis player Naomi Osaka and sprinter Allyson Felix.

She is also the only athlete from her sport to make the list.

“It’s really cool to be included in the 50 fittest of the year,” Duffy told The Royal Gazette. “I’m really quite surprised.

“It’s special that I was included in an incredible list of women, so I’m really honoured and very surprised to have made that top 50.

“It’s kind of amazing the notoriety that the Olympics gets, so it’s great that I was included in that list. I was the only triathlete in that list so that’s also pretty cool.”

Each year Sports Illustrated ranks the best-conditioned athletes in the world, consulting the expertise of trainers, exercise physiologists and performance experts with experience across the college, professional and Olympic levels of sports.

The panel evaluates athletes on the following criteria: performances over the last 12 months; demands and risks of their respective sports; durability; training regimens; and other physical benchmarks including power, speed, strength, agility, endurance, flexibility and more.

The latest accolade for Duffy follows on the heels of having been named this month by Triathlon Magazine Canada as the 2021 International Woman Triathlete of the Year.

She was also listed by The World Economic Forum as one of nine women who made history in 2021.

Duffy’s sparkling career reached dizzying heights last year.

The 34-year-old earned Bermuda’s first gold medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo last summer, with a winning time of 1hr 55min 36sec.

She also won a record-equalling 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 is also the first triathlete to be crowned the world and Olympic champion in the same year.

She was made an 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 the XXI Commonwealth Games in Australia the same year, which has since been elevated to Dame Commander of the British Empire.