Most of us have rituals or routines that might not make much sense. Whether it’s wearing a certain t-shirt because it has good vibes, preferring to use the second bathroom stall in a public toilet rather than any of the others, or waiting at the precise same spot on the train platform every morning, things like this make us feel safe, and help us make our world feel manageable, like we’re in control.
However, some people have jobs that can make you feel very out of control – such as pro athletes. When you have to run really fast against other really fast runners, or throw a 4 kilogram metal ball really far, the world must seem very scary. Things could so easily go wrong in a split second and in that split second you have little say over what happens, no matter how hard you’ve trained – it’s little wonder that many of the athletes competing at the Rio Olympics this summer need a few rituals of their own to feel grounded and secure. Here, we’ve rounded up some of the superstitions that Olympic athletes use to manage the stress…
Laura Unsworth, hockey (GB)
Laura believes that her teammate Ashleigh Ball using hair straighteners pre-match is bad juju and has banned it. She told the Evening Standard: “Ashleigh has really curly hair which she straightens before important matches, but I’ve made her stop since she straightened it and we did badly in a match.” Laura’s own ritual involves going to the toilet before going to the changing room and again after warm-up.
Photo: Kieran Galvin/REX/Shutterstock.
Kayla Harrison, judo (USA)
The gold medallist wears lucky socks that her grandma gave her. "I'm big on ritual and I'm big on patterns and I get comfortable," she has said, according to CBS. "And when I get comfortable, I get confident. And when I get confident, I win."
Photo: REX/Shutterstock.
Jade Jones, taekwondo (GB)
Jade was wearing her trusty lucky Union Jack knickers when she won gold at the London 2012 Olympics. “I always wear them in training, although obviously I washed them! I’ve got a few more pairs now. I’ve always been really superstitious,” she explained at the time. “I used to take my grandad’s lucky brown boots to training with me.”
Photo: Graham Chadwick/REX/Shutterstock.
Evelyn Stevens, cyclist (USA)
For Evelyn, success boils down to a lucky blue sports bra that she’s worn since 2009: “My older sister gave it to me, and I did a few early races with it and started winning. Of course, it wasn’t the training or my ability, it was the blue lucky sports bra,” she said.
Photo: REX/Shutterstock.
Stephanie Rice, swimming (AUS)
Stephanie’s pre-race ritual involves swinging her arms eight times, and splashing her body with water four times and then pressing her goggles into her face four times.
Photo: REX/Shutterstock.
Alex Danson, hockey (GB)
Alex spins her hockey stick exactly 15 times before each game.
Photo: REX/Shutterstock.
Jessica Ennis, heptathlon (GB)
Arguably one of the greatest athletes Britain has ever produced, it doesn’t mean that Jessica relies on her skill alone. “Superstitions help your mindset and can make a real difference,” she told Men’s Health in 2010. “I have a lucky tape measure I always use for lining up my blocks.”
Photo: Imago/REX/Shutterstock.
Laura Trott, cyclist (GB)
Laura steps on a wet towel while wearing a pair of clean socks before each race. This is because she once won a junior race while wearing a wet sock.
Photo: Simon Wilkinson/REX/Shutterstock.
Jodie Williams, sprint (GB)
A more chic superstition than most: Jodie always has to wear a certain colour nail varnish. “I always wear blue nail varnish when I compete, so I always have to have blue nail varnish on,” she told website Food and Lycra in 2014.
Photo: Jodie Williams/REX/Shutterstock.
Paula Radcliffe, long-distance running (GB)
The veteran runner always uses same safety pins to affix her race number to her vest, and always wears the same jewellery.
Photo: APA PictureDesk GmbH/REX/Shutterstock.
Sarah Ayton, sailing (GB)
A horseshoe and a pair of lucky red socks are the things Sarah needs in her arsenal to feel confident.
Photo: Jamie Wiseman/Associated Newspapers/REX/Shutterstock.
Jillian Camarena-Williams, shotput (USA)
The formidable track-and-field athlete always wears a yellow ribbon her granny gave her tied around her ponytail.
Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images.
Rebecca Adlington, swimming (GB)
Rebecca has said in the past that her desire for control manifested itself as OCD: "I can only set my alarm on two, four or six. Otherwise I think the worst is going to happen," she said.
Photo: Mark Pain/REX/Shutterstock.
Sanya Richards-Ross, sprint (USA)
Sanya always wears a lucky necklace her mum gave her. “I have a bullet necklace that my mom gave me when I was in the seventh grade. She told me I was faster than a speeding bullet and so I wear it to all of my competitions as kind of my good-luck charm,” she told Women's Running.
Photo: Back Page Images/REX/Shutterstock
Helen Reeves, canoeist – now commentator (GB)
Before competitions, Helen had to listen to the songs Dolly Parton's "9 to 5", Neil Diamond's "Forever In Blue Jeans" and "Seven Nation Army" by White Stripes in that order.
Photo: Andy Hooper/Daily Mail/REX/Shutterstock.
Erin Hamlin, luge (USA)
Erin – who won the USA’s first-ever Olympic medal for luge in 2014 –always puts her right glove on first. “Not really sure why, it just started happening,” she told Health.com.
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