Author Archives: f002962

Diving Suit Superstition

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Title: Diving Suit

General Information about Item:

  • Customary folklore: rituals
  • English
  • United States of America

Informant Data:

  • Allison Green was born on January 1st, 1997. She began diving year round at age 8. She is now a sophomore at Dartmouth College and a member of the women’s varsity diving team. She specializes in the 1m board.

Contextual Data:

  • Allison described divers in general as very superstitious. She described one typical item here that was passed down from each captain to the youngest members of the team.

Item:

  • Allison describes how divers often practice in their competition suit and can only compete in it if they dive well in it during practice. The item exemplifies contagious magic.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Diving Suit

Collector’s Name: Robert Purvis

Tags/Keywords:

  • folklore, water sports, diving, diving suit superstition

Kipsalana Cheer

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Title: Kipsalana Cheer

General Information about Item:

  • Customary: Verbal, Cheers
  • English
  • United States of America

Informant Data:

  • Robert Purvis was born on May 27th, 1997 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He got into swimming because his two sisters were swimmers and inspired him to start. He started swimming year round at age 6 at his local club, the Boys and Girls Club of Northern Westchester. He is now a sophomore at Dartmouth and is a butterfly specialist on the varsity swim team.

Contextual Data:

  • Robert learned this cheer from his captains within his first month on the team. It is taught to all incoming freshmen on the team. This is a video of the team after practice teaching the freshman the day before their first met.

Item:

  • The men’s team cheer reads as follows

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Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Informant’s Comments:

  • “No one knows what this cheer means anymore or where it originated from. I once spoke to a ’76 about it and he said the same thing, that no one knew the origin or meaning of the cheer.”

Collector’s Name: Robert Purvis

Tags/Keywords:

  • folklore, swimming, water sports, men’s swimming, cheer, verbal, customary, ritual

Cap Superstition

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Title: Cap Superstition

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Superstition
  • English
  • United States of America

Informant Data:

  • Carter Jacobsen was born on January 21st, 1997 in Seattle, Washington. He began swimming at about 6 months and swam summer league for many years. In high school, he began taking swimming more seriously and reached a level of prowess high enough to warrant participation in Dartmouth’s varsity team. He is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth specializing in distance freestyle.

Social/Contextual Data:

  • Carter stated that he came up with this tradition and superstition on his own, but has observed many other swimmers doing the same. It is a form of homeopathic magic; the cap that has been in contact with fast swimming in the past will ensure fast swimming in the future

Item:

  • If carter swims well once in a swimming cap, he continues to wear the same cap in races. However, if he swims poorly, he won’t wear the cap again in a race, but throw it out.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Collector’s Name:  Robert Purvis

Tags/Keywords:

Swimming, water sports, cap, superstition, tradition

Pre-Race Buffalo Wings

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Title: Pre-Race Buffalo Wings

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Superstitions
  • English
  • United States of America

Informant Data:

  • Delaney Hall was born on November 8th, 1997 in Mineola, New York. He was introduced to swimming by his father, a water polo player at Bucknell, and his aunt, a swimmer at Lafayette. At 9 years old, he started swimming competitively all year round for the Long Island Aquatic Club. He is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth specializing in breastroke and individual medley.

Contextual Data:

  • Social/Cultural Context: Delaney learned this ritual from his father when he swam for Long Island Aquatic Club. Swimmers have many food traditions, but it is uncommon for them to directly incorporate homeopathic magic, as is demonstrated here.

Item:

  • Delaney has a superstition that before every race, he needs to eat buffalo chicken wings to swim fast due to the homeopathic magic of the chicken “flying” just like he would “fly” through the water.

Transcript of Associated File:

  • “One of my first swim meets was in Buffalo, New York, which is the birthplace of the chicken wing. My dad told me that if I were to eat chicken wings before my race, I would sprout wings and be able to fly across the water. I tried eating them and I had a great meet, so ever since then, I’ve been eating chicken wings.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • Delaney states that he no longer partakes in this ritual as he realized not only how ridiculous it is, but how it is in fact counteractive to his swimming performance.

Collector’s Name: Robert Purvis

Tags/Keywords:

  • swimming, buffalo wings, buffalo, tradition, pre-race, superstition