The Olympics are nothing if not the world’s biggest stage to lay bare the funny habits of athletes.
When it comes to swimming, athletes are put to the glare of the camera during the few seconds before the race starts and can be seen performing a rather wide range of pre-race rituals.
From a backslap that has taken on an iconic status (and a hashtag) to an elaborate spitting out of pool water, from touching a goggle four times to savagely beating the chest muscles, here’s what this year’s swimmers at Rio have been up to in the seconds before they dive from the board.
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Santo Condorelli
The Canadian 21-year-old has finished in the fourth place at the men’s 100 meter freestyle finals and has posted a personal best time of 21.97 seconds to reach the finals of the men’s 50 meter freestyles. However, that’s not what is grabbing the headlines for him.
Condorelli follows a bizarre ritual of flipping the finger before every swim. And what’s more, he flips it to his father, who then shows it back to him.
It was apparently, Condorelli’s father who conceptualised the ritual to help his son beat the pre-match jitters. Santo told the Canadian Press that his father had some sage advice to back this ritual up,”You've got to build your confidence yourself and say "eff everybody else that you're racing.” He said "Every time you're behind the blocks, give me the finger and I'll give it back to you".”
However, the fact that there are often cameras situated between Condorelli and his father in the audience, has landed the sprinter in trouble, as baffled audiences wondered why he was announcing his anger to the viewers this way.
To stop this misunderstanding from spiralling, Condorelli has had to slightly modify his routine. He now flips the finger closer to his own forehead.
His father, though, is still flipping him back.
Katie Ledecky
At 19 years of age, Ledecky has been going about a task of breaking records in a way that can be described with just one word – ruthless. One of the few Olympic swimmers in the world who have had the luxury of finishing their swim, turning around and patiently waiting for their competitors to finish what she did many seconds ago, Ledecky has three golds and a team silver at Rio already.
Having broken the 800 meter freestyle Olympic record last night, Ledecky is the firm favourite for the medal. But whether she is winning (which is often) or gearing up for a hotly contested race, Ledecky is eerily calm and centred.
And that’s apparently because she, as devout Catholic, has been saying the ‘Hail Mary’ prayer before each race ever since she began.
She told CNS News, “I do say a prayer – or two – before any race. The Hail Mary is a beautiful prayer and I find that it calms me.” Ledecky has studied at Little Flower School in Bethesda and then Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart – to both of which she credits her faith-based education.
Before each race, Katie also subjects her mind to some pretty intense visualisation. “I can see myself at different points of the race,” she said in a press conference.
Michael Phelps
Almost as famous as the greatest athlete of all time is his pre-race routine. In his 16 year long Olympic career, Phelps has had the same way of walking to the pool with his head bowed down, the same playlist of Eminem, Young Jeezy and Michael Jackson blasting through his headphones, the same adjustment of the diving board, followed by the putting on of the goggles.
But it is what he does on the diving board that has become as big a sensation as him. While his competitors bend down to take position, Phelps extends his 6’7” wingspan, flaps his arms around himself twice, and after two resounding backslaps, touches the board to dive from it.
A social media sensation of its own, the #MPBackslap is by now all that the cameras focus on before a race involving Phelps.
Before the Rio Olympics, when Phelps introduced his line of customised emojis, the backslap one, he said, was his ‘favourite’.
Sarah Sjostrom
Sweden’s star swimmer who has already won a gold, a silver and a bronze at Rio, is in the habit of pouring a bottle of water on herself before each race, before stepping on to the board.
Katie Ledecky’s number one threat in the pool, Sjostrom acclimatises herself for a second time after the showers and before the race by upending a bottle on her cap.
Her rituals have certainly been paying off, as she is the new world record holder for the women’s 100 meter butterfly, becoming Sweden’s very first female Olympic gold medallist.
Chad le Clos
Chad le Clos has not been having a particularly great time at Rio. The men’s 200 meter butterfly which he was defending since London is now Michael Phelps’s.
Le Clos, who at once idolises and also talks with less reserve about Phelps than other athlete, has had a not-so-comfortable public relationship with Phelps. But with his characteristic flamboyance and explosive bursts of speed on the pool, le Clos has been having close finishes – including a silver in the men’s 100 meter butterfly.
His pre-race ritual, though, has inspired Michael Phelps to put forth a face that had taken the internet by storm. At the heats of the men’s 200 meter butterfly, while the swimmers waited in the call room, le Clos pranced about, jumping up and down and agitating a sullen Phelps who put on a stare of blood-curdling disgust in return.
In most races, le Clos follows an exuberant call room ritual with four slaps to his chest muscles.
Ruta Meilutyte and Tamas Kenderesi
Lithuanian swimmer and London Olympic gold medallist Ruta Meilutyte was 15 years old when she knelt by the pool and scooped up some water with her hands to drink it. However, this is a pre-race routine that the backstroke specialist has forgone at Rio. The reasons behind this could be the concerns over the safety of drinking pool water.
Hungarian Tamas Kenderesi, the 19-year-old men’s 200 meter butterfly winner of bronze, on the other hand did put some water in his mouth before the races at Rio, but he spewed the water out in a spray and did not drink it either.
