Reason why Olympic swimmers slap themselves before entering the water
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: Sarah Stier/Getty Images
The 2024 Paris Olympics has produced some memorable events, but swimmers slapping themselves might be the most confusing one.
If you’ve not yet tuned into the Olympic swimming events, you’ll have missed the moments where athletes slap themselves right before a race.
There’s no system for this, as swimmers will often slap a different part than the person beside them.
So, you could see one person slapping their chest, and another slapping a thigh.
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Whether it’s slapping with an open palm or a closed fist, it seems as though the swimmers have their own tradition. But it’s left viewers baffled in the stands and at home.
According to the most known reason, it’s to improve blood flow to those areas being slapped.
Matt Barbini, the USA Swimming’s director of performance, told TODAY in 2021 that ‘they consider it part of their warm-up or activation, just making sure that there’s sort of maximal blood flow going to those parts of the body before you swim.’
To be honest, you can actually see it happening as you watch them continue to slap themselves.
The areas affected will turn red and blotchy afterwards.
Athlete Approved explained: “The pectorals, shoulders, biceps, and triceps are important for their performance, so those muscles will often be the first slapped. Those are also the muscles that are most easily slapped.”
However, even though they may believe it increases blood flow, there isn’t much evidence to support it.
It may just be that it’s a good luck measure that they do to feel as though they will have an enhanced performance.
Kind of like a lucky ritual.
Barbini explained: “Having a procedure and a routine that you go through during that time is really helpful mentally so you’re not just standing there letting the nerves get to you […] you go up your left arm, you go up your right arm, go across your chest […] anything that sort of kills those in-between moments before the race starts, I think, helps keep athletes calm.”
Michael Legge, a swimming at Warners Bay in the New South Wales Hunter region in Australia told ABC that is could be a way to get themselves in the mindset.
Legge has coached swimmers who have gone on to be Olympians, and believes that splashing or slapping is a 'ritual' for those athletes.
He said: "They slap themselves to get the blood flowing, it gets the adrenaline pumping, they're waking their muscles up.
"It's like rugby league in the 80s … when they're standing in the sheds and they slap themselves in the face to be able to pump them up and get ready to play football. The swimmers have adapted some of that."
He said: "Sometimes it's that placebo effect.
"You think, 'If I hit myself harder, I'm going to race much faster.'"