The programme, designed to enhance athlete medal success at the London 2012 Olympic Games by providing talented potential team members with an opportunity to experience the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, will see athletes from 33 disciplines spend seven days in Macau and Beijing.

 

Whilst there, athletes will visit the Team GB preparation camp in Macau, the Olympic Village and the Athletes’ Lodge.

 

They will also have a press conference fronted by their mentors, Olympians like Denise Lewis, Ed Coode and Alison Mowbray.

 

In addition participants will be given the opportunity to watch two competition sessions for their specific discipline.

 

Simon Clegg, the Team GB Chef de Mission for Beijing, said: “This programme is unique worldwide and is expected to provide a real competitive edge to the participants.

 

"With the BOA’s aspirational target to finish fourth in the overall medal table in 2012, and research showing that a significantly high percentage of medallists at any Olympic Games have attended previous Olympic Games, this experience can form a vital part of the athletes preparation for Olympic success.”

 

Coode, a member of the coxless four alongside Sir Matthew Pinsent that won an Olympic gold medal in Athens, said: “As a rower I found the first Olympics that I went to in Sydney 2000 to be totally different to anything I had experienced before as a sportsman - even though I had raced at three World Championships prior to this. 

 

"Although the race and competition are essentially the same, the time spent building up to and at the Olympics is unlike anything an athlete would have experienced before.

 

"At the same time the scale of the hype and the press interest only fuels the novice competitor’s fears that he or she has to do something different at the Olympics.

 

"I think this certainly contributed to me underperforming in the Coxless Pairs event in Sydney 2000.

 

"What I hope to achieve through the Britain’s Olympic Ambition 2012 programme is that the young, novice, athletes of 2012 actually achieve 100 per cent of what they are capable of at the London 2012 Olympic Games and their performances do not suffer simply because it is their first Games.

 

"The only way of helping them prepare for the Games is to let them experience it first hand.

 

"This programme’s focus is based around providing sports specific event exposure and to replicate, as closely as possible, an athlete’s overall Olympic experience."

 

Among the athletes chosen to go to Macau and Beijing is Kirsty McWilliam, winner of the world junior triathlon title last year.

 

She said: “I am extremely excited to be part of this programme.

 

"To be able to experience the Olympics first hand is something that not many people get to do and I feel very lucky to have been selected to go.

 

"Obviously in 2012 I hope to be competing and not just watching.

 

"I think it will be a great opportunity to see what happens at the Olympics and will hopefully prepare me better for when I may be going to the London 2012 Olympics myself.

 

"I also think going to Beijing will motivate me even more to reach the London 2012 Olympics because I'm sure it will be a great experience and I hate just watching and not competing in races.”

 

A full list of athletes and chosen can be seen at http://www.olympics.org.uk/beijing2008/News.aspx?id=2451.