The XTERRA World Championship for 2021 takes place this weekend and all eyes will be on Flora Duffy to see if she can win a sixth title!
Fun in the sun (and the dirt, and possibly some mud). That’s one of the calling cards of the XTERRA World Championship in Maui, Hawaii, which takes place this coming Sunday.
The event’s history dates back all the way to 1996 and will be headlined by a name that has already secured her place in the sport’s all-time list, long before her glittering career is over.
John Levison previews - Will it be six appeal for Duffy?
In the last race of what has been a stunning season in an already incredible career, the Olympic and World Triathlon champion has the opportunity to add a sixth XTERRA World title to her C.V. That would take her World Championship gold medal-winning total across all disciplines to 11.
She has serious plans to race at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship between now and Paris 2024 too – and seemingly all the skills to be exceptionally competitive when she does.
It seems like an appropriate time to reflect on Flora’s exceptional consistency over the past decade, during which she has won gold medals at all of the following World Championship or Major Games events.
World Triathlon Champion 2021
Olympic Games Gold 2021 (Tokyo 2020)
XTERRA World Champion 2019
Commonwealth Games Champion 2018
XTERRA World Champion 2017
World Triathlon Champion 2017
XTERRA World Champion 2016
ITU Cross Triathlon World Champion 2016
World Triathlon Champion 2016
XTERRA World Champion 2015
ITU Cross Triathlon World Champion 2015
XTERRA World Champion 2014
Even more impressive is that during the run of success there were times when injury kept her out of racing action for months at a time, let alone many years of ups and downs from being a World Junior Championship silver medallist (2006), to almost drifting out of the sport completely, before finally finding her feet, balance and true ability at senior level. As they say, the path to success is rarely a straight one.
Duffy won with the fastest times in all three disciplines in 2019, and it would surely take either a mechanical or a spectacular ‘the season finally caught up with me and I had absolutely nothing left’ blow up, for her to not win again.
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