Before today, you probably best recognized Santo Condorelli from the phrase, “Who the hell is Santo Condorelli?”
Well, according to BroBible, you’ll now know him as the 21-year-old Canadian Olympic swimmer who gives his dad the middle finger before every race.
Canadian swimmer @santocondorelli gives his dad the finger before every race https://t.co/UKJUPcDpWK pic.twitter.com/v7L8M2SF0w
— Josh Elliott (@joshelliott14) August 4, 2016
Why? You guessed it: It’s good luck.
Surprisingly, it was actually Condorelli’s father, Joseph, who came up with the pre-race ritual when his son was just eight years old, and Santo has been flipping the bird toward him ever since.
“You’ve got to build your confidence yourself and say eff everybody else that you’re racing,” Condorelli said his father told him as a child. “He said ‘Every time you’re behind the blocks, give me the finger and I’ll give it back to you.'”
And that’s exactly what happened before the Men’s 100 meter freestyle final at the 2012 Speedo Junior National Championship:
“Athletes always have that one thing that gets them going that they need to do,” Condorelli said. “That happens to be mine and still is. Seeing everybody’s reaction to it has been interesting. I’m not trying to piss people off. I just put it in the middle of my forehead now. My dad is definitely giving it to me and I can see him from a mile away.”
No word if Santo’s old man also breaks off that finger and jams it up his ass if he loses the race, but let’s hope not. It would be a sad end to an otherwise cute story.
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