The practice of imagining competing and winning has been used by Team GB as part of their coaching methods.

And experts believe with margins between success and failure so close, natural ability and gruelling training regimes allied with the power of the mind can make all the difference.

Known as Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), visualising personal success is credited with helping gain Britain's haul of 47 medals including 19 golds.

Triple gold medal winning cyclist Chris Hoy said: "Our athletes have always had the ability, but they did not truly believe they could win. Our success in Beijing is largely down to the fact that they now have that belief.

"Visualisation is a very important part. It's good to go through every little detail of the race in your mind beforehand.

"Then when it comes to race day, you are prepared and you know what to expect. A major part of it is having self-belief."

A spokesman for The English Institute of Sport (EIS), which trains athletes in visualisation techniques, said; "Performance psychology, of which visualisation plays a part, is one of the services that we provide to a number of the competitors out in Beijing and it is fair to say that we believe this has helped increase the number of medals which we have won."

"If you don't know how to train this way, you don't know how to achieve," said international NLP expert and trainer Sonia Saxton.

Ms Saxton, who runs NLP courses through her business, Saxton Partners, added: "If people can visualise winning and what it is like to hear the crowd as they cross the winning line and what it feels like to win, it becomes a reality to them and their mind shifts their perception of what is possible and enhances their performance.

"In the last few years NLP techniques have been top of the list and now coaches are a lot more experienced in athletes helping themselves mentally.

"Understanding the psychology plays a bigger role because that is what achieves the results."

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