Picabo Street collected pins and named her skis. Michelle Kwan swears by a golden necklace.
Along with bags of equipment and competitive fire, many Olympic athletes competing in the 2006 Winter Games in Turin will be bringing good-luck charms or practicing quirky rituals to gain an edge.
And, like Street, the winners will credit their superstitions.
The bubbly skier with the funny name won a silver medal in the downhill at the 1994 Games and captured gold in the Super G four years later on a pair of Rossignols nicknamed “Olys,” Street told First Tracks ski magazine. Other skis were known as “Earnies,” in honor of late NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, and “Willys,” for when Street needed to will herself to victory. Street believed her “Ah-nolds” could channel the strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
This year’s Olympians are no less superstitious. Kwan has glided and spun her way to five world skating championships and two Olympic medals with a golden dragon pendant around her neck. The gift from her grandmother has become so synonymous with the skater that Electronic Arts sold replicas with the video game “Michelle Kwan Figure Skating.” Expect to see the necklace as Kwan vies for her first Olympic gold medal.
Other athletes will rely on special rituals.
American long-track speed skater Derek Parra, who won gold and silver medals four years ago in Salt Lake City, has been eating the same pre-race snack since his days on the inline skating circuit in Florida.
“I eat a pack of Fig Newtons the night before I race,” Parra said in an e-mail. “Both good luck and nutrition. Been doing it since 1989.”
Luck be a T-shirt tonight
With his trademark “soul patch” goatee and long hair, short-track speedskater Apolo Ohno became an instant sensation when he won silver and gold medals at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
He credits many things for his lighting performances, including an old T-shirt emblazoned with the words “No pain, no gain.”
“I wouldn't say that I always wear this particular shirt, but I do ALWAYS bring it with me to trips and competitions,” Ohno said in an e-mail.
So can ratty T-shirts, Fig Newtons and dragon pendants give an edge to a top-flight athlete?
Yes, and no, says sports psychologist Bill Cole.
“The value in superstition is that for athletes it gives an incredible confidence, because you really believe this thing works,” said Cole, whose clients include tennis pros, golfers, baseball players and business leaders.
But he says athletes also need rituals like recalling a fond memory or visualizing a race to prepare themselves mentally for competition.
“Part of the job of coaching is leaving as little to chance as possible,” Cole said. “If you can’t practice your superstition, you might feel something is off. The advantage of a ritual is that you control it.
He would probably approve of Ohno’s approach.
In addition to packing around his tattered shirt, Ohno works tirelessly on his physical conditioning and mental preparation. He told NBCOlympics.com that that books “Flow” and “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior” have helped him tap into his spirituality and ground himself emotionally and mentally.
And the winner is ...
Peace of mind may be desirable, but for superstitious athletes it will never replace the Fig Newtons and lucky charms.
The gold medal for superstition could go to speedskater Chad Hedrick. Nicknamed “The Exception” by teammate Parra because of his odd training habits, Hedrick admits he takes pre-race rituals to the extreme.
“I am really superstitious with fortune cookies and also the number of my hotel room,” he told NBCOlympics.com. “I usually add up all of the numbers of my hotel room, and if they equal, like, a lucky number, or all ones, that means I'm going to do really well.”
Hedrick said he thinks he’s seen his future.
“I opened this fortune cookie and I asked, ‘How am I going to do at the Olympics?’ And the fortune cookie said, ‘Soon you will be standing on top of the world.’”
