With all eyes likely to be on Dame Flora Duffy as she attempts to defend her Olympic triathlon title, it is easy to forget that she is not the only athlete representing Bermuda in the race.

While Duffy is at her fifth Olympics, 26-year-old Erica Hawley is making her first appearance and even though she is focusing on her own race, like the rest of the island she is hoping that Flora can again make it to the top of the podium.

“It’s incredible to be lining up at the Olympics alongside Flora and I’m rooting for her,” Hawley said.

“We’re obviously in the same event and I am focused on my own race. But while I’m focusing on myself, of course I want Flora to bring home the gold. It’s a full circle moment with her maybe at the end of her short-course career and this being the start of a long journey for me.”

Bermuda’s elite triathletes are finding that there are perks to being from the same country as an Olympic champion with Duffy, and her husband Dan Hugo, being generous in allowing Hawley and Tyler Smith to use the training base in Poissy, 40 miles from Paris.

“It’s nice to be a part of it but not fully immersed in the whole Olympic experience,” Hawley said.

“We have Flora, Dan, Tyler and my coach Jess [Broderick] in Poissy and we have a team environment, which is nice. We all have different training but we can link up with the swim and it’s nice to have a little community and not feel completely isolated.

“Dan is the man and has organised a lot, so I’m definitely glad to follow the Flora plan of staying away and not being in the Village before the race. That’s a huge benefit.”

Hawley may be an Olympic novice but she is far from naive when it comes to major events after competing at the Commonwealth Games and finishing fourth in the Pan American Games in Chile last November. But she has noticed there is a big difference in the way she is treated in Paris.

“Experience of the Pan Am Games and the Commonwealth Games has set me up but the big difference, and I noticed it while travelling, is that everybody while you are wearing your gear is wishing you good luck and coming up to you and I’m not really used to that,” Hawley said.

“At a normal race, I’m not a Flora but here it seems everybody is a superstar in the eyes of the local people. It is amazing and noticeably different.”

It is clear that Hawley has worked hard physically to get to this point but the mental journey has been just as challenging with a growth mindset key to the steady improvement she has shown in the last year.

“Every elite athlete has those mental challenges but in the last year I have really worked on that and belief is such an important thing in racing and that part of me has really grown,” Hawley said.

“I have had such a positive trajectory in the last six to 12 months and it has been amazing. At the Olympics, everybody belongs, everybody has qualified and earned their spot to be here. It is a cool feeling to be part of the best of the best and know I have earned my way here.

Of all Bermuda’s athletes competing in Paris, Hawley may have the most support, with her mother, Julia, herself a former Commonwealth Games cyclist, leading a group of more than 20 people to the French capital.

“I think I have 20 to 25 friends and family coming across, which is amazing, and that just shows the people I have around me.

“At first it was just close family, like mom, dad, sister, grandma, but then a lot of people decided to come last minute as you just never know if you are going to have that opportunity again.

“I’m not going to see them before the race but afterwards will be the time to be with everyone. It’s such a big thing and so many people have reached out to me and you don’t get that in your regular races.

“It’s all positive reinforcement and it’s great to represent Bermuda and represent yourself at the highest level. Everybody recognises what the Olympics is but the plan is to be incognito before the race and really limit the social time.

“My mom is nervous in the best way, but she loves it and doesn’t transfer it across to me. She’s hiding it pretty well.”