SPOTY 2019: Sporting heroes’ good luck rituals

Ever felt a bit daft about taking the same pen into every exam?

Wearing the same socks whenever your favourite football team is playing?

Feel daft no longer. You’re in excellent company.

BBC Bitesize caught up with some of the UK’s most successful athletes on the red carpet of this Sports Personality of the Year (or, SPOTY, to be brief) Award in Aberdeen to find out which routines they like to do before competing.

This year’s SPOTY trophy was taken home by England’s Cricket World Cup legend Ben Stokes. His ritual? While on the cricket field, whatever item of clothing that has a left, such as shoes or gloves, that’s what he puts on first.

Paralympic table tennis star Will Bayley won our hearts on the Strictly dancefloor this winter and although injury cut his time on the show short, it looked as though he was on to a winning ritual beforehand, one he shared with 2019 champ Kelvin Fletcher.

He said: “Me and Kelvin… we had the same table that we like to have breakfast at, and we couldn’t go to the show without having breakfast at that table.”

So when people take about the breakfast of champions, they’re clearly onto something.

Food plays an important part in pre-competition rituals. Para swimmer Ellie Simmons always eats dried mango before a race and footballer Chelcee Grimes always used to eat the same yoghurt an hour before kick-off.

Someone else with a fantastic sporting 2019 to look back on is world heptathlon champion, Katarina Johnson-Thompson. Hours of training and honing each of the seven skills required to earn a gold medal winning points tally, of course, played the most part in her success at Doha, but perhaps helping it all along were those little quirks KJT (as she’s known), adopts during competitions.

“I used to count to 12 before I do the high jump,” she said. “At that point, if I didn’t do it, it just got into me - but I think what I like to do is prepare as fully as I can so, with heptathlon, it’s normally early starts. So, the night before, I put all of my clothes in the order I’m meant to be wearing them, so the next morning it’s easy enough to smash them out.”

One SPOTY guest worth keeping an eye on is skateboarder Sky Brown. Aged 11, she could be Team GB’s youngest ever summer Olympian if she qualifies for Tokyo 2020, where the street sport makes its debut in the programme.

Even Sky has developed her own ritual before getting on her board to compete at the highest level and it’s something almost anyone can incorporate into their routine. Quite simply, it’s listening to music.

Sports Personality of the Year 2019 is available to view on BBC iPlayer.