Sports stars often have rather idiosyncratic good luck charms ahead of big competitions, but it seems Olympians and socks have a long and storied history.

We’ll focus on Rio for now, because a quick news search shows a number of athletes talking about the humble footwear.

Take 16-year-old Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak, for example. She’s only gone and nabbed four medals in Rio, but it’s what she does with them that’s rather interesting:

Instead of sporting her medals around Rio, she has them stashed at her building in the athletes’ village — inside some socks.

“I don’t like wearing all four at once because they clink, and it’s big and messed up. I don’t like it.”

It’s a nice problem to have, but let’s just hope the socks she chooses are befitting of an Olympic medal.

Then there’s Bermudan rower Michelle Pearson and her socks, given to her by best friend and former team-mate, Mary MaGinnis. Ready yourself for this one:

[She] never truly feels alone in the single sculls thanks to a pair of socks she wore in each of her races at the Olympic Games…

The unremarkable-looking white socks have a symbolic significance which the Bermudian draws upon whenever the going gets tough.

“The socks are very old as we graduated in 2013 and she’d already been wearing them for races previously,” said Pearson, who represented the United States alongside MaGinnis at the 2008 World Championships in Linz, Austria.

“We now have this thing whereby we say there are always two of us in the boat rather than one.”

I imagine it would get lonely out there on the water, but if you’re giving someone lucky socks make them funky rather than unremarkable.

Perhaps the biggest talking point with regards socks centres around the women’s Chinese gymnastics team wearing them during competition, whereas the American team chose not to.

Here’s what the head coach of the University of Arizona’s gymnastics program, Tabitha Yim, had to say:

“Some gymnasts don’t need the socks because they do not perform any major turning elements while others feel the socks are distracting during their other skills.”

Yim noted that thanks to new rules, certain dance moves “that involve turning two or more revolutions on one foot,” have become much more popular. Thus, you’ll likely see more gymnasts wearing socks to avoid unwanted friction on the skin of their feet.

Given that the American team came out on top maybe socks off is best, but the same can’t be said for those of us not performing somersaults during a floor routine.

We like ours to pop and lock in their own unique way, which is why we dabble in the wide range of bamboo designs from Sexy Socks.

It’s worth remembering that Sexy Socks are also doing some real good – for each pair of socks they sell, they give a pair of school socks to a child in one of South Africa’s township schools.

I think we can all agree that making a difference to those in need is seriously sexy, so through their full range of designs for your enjoyment HERE and do a little good while you’re at it.

A few designs to start your engines…

[sources:np&rg&businessinsider]