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Read more: “Smart Guide 2012: 10 ideas you’ll want to understand“

All top-level athletes – and we’re thinking of the 17,000 that will descend on London for the Olympics in July 2012 – will probably have the optimal genes to compete at their chosen sport. They will have been training for years, and their diets will be finely honed. But it is in their minds where medals will be won or lost.

“It is in athletes’ minds where medals will be won or lost”

It’s only in the last decade or so that psychological training has been recognised as equally important to sporting success as the physical side. runs twice-monthly sessions for athletes in the final year of the run-up to the Olympics. A pair of psychologists in Israel of psychological training with their athletes, which starts as soon as the last games finish.

Medal-winners tend to be those who are best able to control their emotions and focus their attention, and are brimming with confidence, motivation and optimism. The idea of psych-training is to help athletes reach this state of mind through strategies such as goal-setting, imagery, simulating the competitive environment and even talking to themselves.

Psychologists will also be considering the finer details of the athlete’s environment in the run-up to their moment in the spotlight. What kinds of information are athletes given during their stay in the Olympic Village? What is the wording like on notice boards? Every detail counts.

Of course, the best athletes also have the right genes. A sprinter or long jumper might have a certain form of the gene ACTN3 as it leads to more fast-twitch muscle – the kind required for short bursts of strength and speed. Endurance athletes commonly have a version of the NRF2 gene which optimises VO2 max – .

So winning is just a matter of having the right expression of genes, putting in years of physical training, and honing the mental toughness needed to succeed. But not everyone can win. So perhaps some athletes will need psychologists to help them cope with losing – not that we should even mention that word until after August.