Tokyo Olympics: Bermuda least-populated in Summer Olympic history to win gold, after tri victory

With fewer residents than Palmerston North and a touch more than Rotorua and Hastings, Bermuda is now the least populated country to win Summer Olympic gold, thanks to Flora Duffy and her runaway triathlon win on Tuesday.

When Duffy, 33, overcame a typhoon that delayed the start, slippery roads and her opponents in Tokyo, it was a victory for Paget Parish, one of nine parishes on the north Atlantic Ocean islands, population 71,176.

Bermuda is a British protectorate, whose Prime Minister is Boris Johnson, with its national anthem God Save the Queen.

If Duffy looked familiar to New Zealanders, it could be that she won the first gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

Bermuda first participated at the Olympic Games in 1936, and has sent athletes to every Summer Olympic Games since, apart from a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

It has also contested in every Winter Olympic Games since 1992.

Before Duffy scampered to gold, Clarence Hill was the only Bermudian to win an Olympic medal, a bronze in heavyweight boxing at the 1976 Games in Montreal.

The National Olympic Committee for Bermuda was created in 1935 and recognised by the International Olympic Committee in 1936.

Bermuda is better known to KIwis as host of the 2017 America's Cup, when Team New Zealand claimed the trophy from Oracle Team USA.

As small as Bermuda is, Duffy was one of the pre-race favourites, as her record is sublime.

As well as the Commonwealth Games, Duff was the only person to win three triathlon world titles in the same year in 2016, claiming the World Triathlon Series (WTS), ITU Cross Triathlon and Xterra titles.

She is the only triathlete in history to post the fastest swim, bike and run portions in the same triathlon, and holds the record for the largest winning margin in both Olympic and Sprint distance races in a WTS event.

But Bermuda is not the least populated country to win gold at any Olympic Games – that honour falls to Liechtenstein (38,896 in 2020), which is also the smallest country by area to win Olympic medals – 2 gold, 2 silver and 6 bronze, all at the Winter Olympics.

Crammed between Switzerland and Austria, seven of the alpine country’s medals were won by members of the same family.