The Odd Rituals of Olympians That You Should Copy

Top athletes do a variety of things hoping to bring themselves good luck - but it's not dumb superstition - science shows the benefits can be real.

I hope you enjoyed the Winter Olympics. My enjoyment of the games, however, was a little dampened by the absence of the Czech snowboarding star Eva Samkova, due to an injury.

I don't know a ton about snowboardcross - the event at which Eva excels - but I do look forward to one part of her appearance on the ski slopes. The mustache she paints on her top lip before she competes.

She often draws on the mustache using the colors of the Czech flag - but it's not wholly a patriotic gesture. "It's for luck," she once explained.

The more you watch sport, the more you spot these unusual little behaviors by top athletes like Eva. Rituals they carry out to help them in the test they're about to face. And I'm fascinated by them.

Laura Kenny is the most decorated Olympic female cyclist in history. But in my book, she’s also a champion when it comes to observing these peculiar pre-competition rituals.

Rumor has it that the British bike rider was trailing in a junior championships back in 2010, when she stepped in some water that soaked into her sock. A total drag, right?

But the odd thing is… she went on to take victory. So ever since that win, she’s developed a new pre-game ritual: she intentionally steps on a wet towel before heading to the race track.

“I get wet socks which is a bit annoying, but it seems to work,” Laura told a newspaper, also admitting that she has a “lucky” necklace and “lucky” earrings, too.

The strange practice does seem to work for Laura - she’s taken gold medal after gold medal in every Olympic Games since then. And she triumphed again in Tokyo this past summer.

But not everyone is totally onboard with her superstitions. Her husband (also a record-breaking Olympic cyclist) isn’t convinced.

“Jason thinks I'm stupid,” said Laura recently.

Well, I’ve got news for Jason (and you too, Laura, if you doubt your own ritual). The science shows that seemingly silly rituals undertaken before a big event do help you.

Very few of us will compete at an Olympics, but we all face challenges in our everyday lives. It could be a school exam or a job interview or maybe a life-changing personal event like welcoming a new child.

At times like these, we usually experience stress and nervousness. And when such anxiety overwhelms us, it can makes us incredibly unhappy and cause our performance to dip.

That’s where little rituals can help.

The Harvard Business School psychologists Mike Norton and Francesca Gino came up with an experiment to test out the impact of ritual on performance and anxiety.

They invited test subjects to play a computer karaoke game and picked an incredibly difficult song for these competitors to sing, ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ by Journey.

Some of the participants were told to get just started crooning – while others were asked to first draw a sketch of their feelings at that very moment; sprinkle it with salt; count to five; then ball it up and throw it in the trash.

The participants who took part in this odd ritual scored significantly higher on the singing game, and also reported feeling less anxious than the test subjects who’d launched straight into ‘Don’t Stop Believing’.

In fact, the difference in scores was pretty amazing - in grading terms, it was like jumping from a D to a C+. Taking part in a ritual with a scrap of paper was almost like taking a performance-enhancing drug.

I very much doubt any of the participants thought that the sketching and salting and throwing away had a direct impact on their singing skills - but just like a dummy pill in a placebo medical trial, the ritual tricked their bodies into feeling that something was different and that helped the participants to calm down.

So even if you aren’t superstitious, a ritual could still help you prepare before a testing day at work or school.

But what should you choose to do? Experts in this field think the most powerful rituals are ones that aren’t just random plucked out of thin air, they should meet three important criteria:

-Repetition. Whatever you do, try to do it over and over and over again. US track and field star Vashti Cunningham says she always watches the Quentin Tarantino movie Kill Bill the night before competing.

-Intention. The ritual you choose should have some meaning to you - it should be something that feels special. Many athletes achieve this by giving bits of their clothing or activity a ritual significance. Team USA's Lydia Jacoby won a swimming gold medal in Tokyo wearing a pair of pink goggles she’d been gifted years ago by her childhood hero, the former Olympic swimmer Jessica Hardy. (Though her goggles came loose in another race - so no ritual is a guarantee of success.)

-Attention. Focusing your mind on the ritual and being present and mindful during it seems to be important too. Our brains need something to latch on to, so make sure you pay careful attention to the ritual practice you pick, as though it was a sacred act.

I’m reminded here of the Team USA high jumper Katie Nageotte. In Tokyo, she was photographed carrying out a discreet personal ritual and so shared the details with the public.

She writes the word “Dad” on her spiked shoes as a tribute to her later father and when she’s facing a tough jump she touches the writing before starting her sprint towards the high bar.

"I was tapping it a lot today, like, 'Help me get this together'," said Katie… just after she successfully took the gold medal.

So look out for these little rituals. And while you’re looking out for them, maybe try to be less cynical about them. They may seem odd… silly even… but the science says they really can help.

Stay safe,

Laurie