1. Title: Pre-Meet Pasta Superstition

2.Informant info: Catherine (Katie) Harmon (19) has just completed her freshman year while swimming for the club team at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD.  UMD does not have a varsity collegiate team so they receive some preferential treatment as far as facilities useage when compared to other club teams.  Katie has swum competitively in MD for most of her life starting on a local neighborhood summer team, then a small local club team, eventually a high school team, and now the UMD club team.

3. Customary: Superstition

4.Language: English

5.Country of Origin: MD, USA

6.Social / Cultural Context: When something works well, swimmers have a tendancy to do it everytime to preserve their chance of success (going a best time).  In this case, the UMD club team beleives that if they don’t eat the same dinner the night before every meet, and the same breakfast before every meet, then they will not perform well.

7.No Audio, transcribed Skype interview

8.Transcript: team dinner the night before every meal, always pasta either home cooked or restaurant.  They then have bagels in the morning of before every meet.

9.Informant’s comments: It is Katie’s beleif that if they don’t have this meal before a meet then they will not perform well

10.Collector’s comments: This is similar to my own club experience and from what I know about other informants as well.

11. Tags/Keywords: superstition, meal