Dress a girl up in £500 worth of luxury lingerie and it’s bound to do wonders for her outlook. But what can you actually do with all that newfound self-confidence and sense of empowerment?

If you were a member of Great Britain’s enormously successful Olympics team, it’s possible that your lingerie may have helped you to a personal best — or better — during the recently concluded Games.

Several Team GB athletes from a variety of sports made a splash late last year when they posed in luxurious undies from Nichole De Carle for a calendar that raised money for the UK charity Wellbeing of Women.

And while none of the Team NDC girls made it to the podium, several of the athlete-models achieved unexpected results. Examples:

• Imogen Cairns (main photo) helped the women’s gymnastics squad reach the finals, where they placed 6th overall — the UK’s best Olympic achievement since 1928.
• Synchronized swim team captain Jenna Randall (above) made the finals in the duets competition, finishing 9th — a big jump from their 14th-place finish in Beijing.
• Likewise, the GB synchro team of 8 qualified for the finals for the first time, and placed 6th overall.
• Kayaker Jess Walker was a member of Britain’s women’s K4 team, which finished 5th in the 500-meter sprint — the best-ever result by a GB women’s crew in the Olympics.

Not all of the Nichole De Carle models saw their results improve, though. Rosie Morris and Frankie Snell were members of the women’s water polo team which finished last in the standings. No worries: they mave have a new modeling career to fall back on.

Nichole De Carle cheered on their sporty models steadily throughout the Games with a series of promotions and publicity.

And while Team NDC didn’t come away with medals, hopefully they were at least rewarded with some goodies from Nichole De Carle’s autumn collection of strappy, graphic lingerie pieces shown below. Much, much more useful than all that clunky hardware!