FOR many athletes, allowing their mind to drift to the prospect of becoming an Olympic medallist is forbidden. 

Focus on the process, not the outcome is the mantra of countless sportspeople. In other words, look after your own performance and the results will look after themselves. 

There is, of course, more than a sliver of truth in that; no point getting excited about climbing onto the podium if you aren’t able to do what it takes to get there. 

However, every so often, an athlete pops up who freely admits they frequently imagine fulfilling their lifetime ambition of winning an Olympic medal. 

Andrew Musgrave is one of those unusual athletes. 

The 31-year-old is one of the most successful cross-country skiers Britain has ever produced, but he has yet to get his hands on Olympic silverware. 

This, however, has not stopped him dreaming of such a possibility in the months and weeks leading up to him beginning his campaign in Beijing. 

“I definitely think about results. For me, it’s absolutely all results-based. I lie in bed imagining myself standing on the podium,” he says. 

“I use visualisation as a tool both in and out of training so I’ll be doing a session and I’ll imagine the finish line and myself winning.” 

Despite being a relatively youthful 31 years of age, Musgrave is something of a veteran of the Winter Olympics. 

He made his Olympic debut as a junior in 2010 and Beijing, where he will compete in the skiathlon early on Sunday, 15km and 50km, will be his fourth appearance at the Games having written himself into the record books four years ago, in Pyeongchang, in finishing in seventh place in the skiathlon, the best-ever finish for a British cross-country skier in Olympic history. 

This season, his early form was derailed somewhat by a bout of shingles but since Christmas, he is optimistic he has been steadily building towards his peak, with a fourth place World Cup finish his highlight. 

And while he has both experience and confidence in his armoury, Musgrave, who is joined in Team GB’s cross-country squad by his fellow Scot and childhood friend, Andrew Young, is quick to acknowledge that there is also a healthy dose of nerves in there as he prepares to open his 2022 Olympic campaign in the early hours of tomorrow morning in the skiathlon while his strongest event, the 50km race, coming on the penultimate day of the Games. 

“Each one of the Olympics have been completely different for me,” he says. 

“My first one, I was still a junior and I was never going to win so I was going there purely for the experience. In 2014, I was better but I was still not at that very top level. 

“In 2018, though, and then again this time, I’m a real competitor. 

“So, despite my experience, I’m definitely still nervous because this is the thing I’ve been focusing on for four years. 

“For these Games though, it does help that I’ve been in a similar situation before and so I know what to expect.” 

Musgrave has had something of a nomadic lifestyle. 

He has lived in England, Shetland, Alaska and Aberdeenshire, the latter being where he spent a considerable portion of his childhood. 

However, for the past thirteen years, he has called Trondheim in Norway his home in an attempt to be in the thick of the best cross-country skiing conditions. 

Having spent most of his life pushing his body to the limit in a sport that is generally accepted as one of the toughest there is, Musgrave could be forgiven for having contemplated retirement at some point. 

However, he has done nothing of the sort. 

“We definitely like to think we do one of the very hardest sports in the world. But I do still have the drive to do it – if you don’t have the drive, I don’t think there’s any way you can be at the top level of this sport,” he says. 

“I hear some people talk about the sacrifices you have to make to be an athlete and how you can’t live a normal life but I don’t feel that in the slightest.  

“I like pushing my body and I feel like I’m still improving too.  

“Having grown up in Scotland and not having had as much time on snow as some of my competitors, technically, I have more things to work on and improve than they do.  

“So even though I’m over 30, I definitely have areas where I can still improve and get better and that helps me stay motivated.”