Flora Duffy will be remembered as a titan of the sport.
After winning her fourth world title this season following an incredibly closely fought battle with Georgia Taylor-Brown, Duffy is in rarefied company in the history of the sport. In addition, this year she won her second Commonwealth Games title. To go with that, her CV contains two ITU World Cross Triathlon Championships and no fewer than six Xterra World Championships.
And then we come to arguably Duffy’s crowning achievement: her Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021.
In essence, Duffy has completed the sport. Now, a little over sixteen years after taking a silver medal at the World Junior Championships in 2006, she can look back on an illustrious career for the ages.
The question is: what is left for her to do?
The obvious starting point would be to defend her Olympic title in Paris, an objective she is well on her way to doing. With her 2022 performances, she has almost certainly qualified for the Games (barring disaster of course) and will start in Paris in July 2024.
That will give her the opportunity to match the feat achieved only by Alistair Brownlee. Defending an Olympic triathlon gold.
On paper, it is a perfectly logical goal to work towards. After all, she has demonstrated that she is still perhaps the most well-rounded triathlete in the world, capable of leading out swims, producing crushing bike splits and delivering scorching runs.
And yet, there could be doubts. Duffy’s passion for the sport regularly shines through however before WTCS Yokohama this year she was not completely certain if she wanted to continue after the highs of Tokyo.
Ultimately, Yokohama reinvigorated her and she summoned the wherewithal to take the WTCS crown. Nonetheless, her primary challenger this year, Taylor-Brown, will only come back stronger. The road to Paris, and Paris itself, will therefore take a toll.
Duffy is now 35 years old and will one more medal change her life?
In the more immediate turn, she could prioritise defending her world title in 2023. With four championships, she sits tied with Simon Lessing and only Javier Gomez Noya has ever become world champion five times.
Again, though, the challenge of Taylor-Brown and rising stars like Cassandre Beaugrand stand in her path. It is not a question of not wanting to take on the challenge. Rather, it is recognition of the physical and mental toll triathlon takes. This is no easy sport. Duffy’s injuries of 2018 and 2019 may yet return and that would affect the calculus.
Once you have won everything, where does the motivation come from next? The passion for the sport, for racing, for competing, may still be there. But that burning need to be the best? That desire to suffer through the heat of Abu Dhabi, up the climbs of Bermuda, on the streets of Hamburg? That refusal to back down against someone that is desperate to win what you have already won?
The psychology of elite sport is an intricate enough subject on its alone, let alone when considering someone that has conquered virtually all areas of their domain.
We hope Flora Duffy continues. We hope she gets to sign off on her own terms. And yet, it is hard to ignore that there are reasons for her to let go of her crown as much as there are to continue fighting for it.
To continue onwards will not be the easiest path and if we see Duffy step onto the top of the podium in Paris, some two months before turning 37, it may be one of the great triumphs of sporting history.
When you have climbed a mountain few have ever climbed, what comes next?
