Q. A lot of athletes at the Olympics are talking to themselves before they begin. What are they saying?

A. Some are praying, others repeating mantras, still others brushing off the pressure.

"They're not crazy," says sports psychologist JoAnn Dahlkoetter, author of "Your Performing Edge." "When athletes are talking to themselves, they could be doing a number of things, but basically just giving themselves confidence."

Hurdler Lolo Jones was seen mouthing "I can win this race," when she was introduced to the crowd before the 100-meter hurdles, where she finished an unlikely seventh.

Gold-winning pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva had better results with: "Do it, do it, just do it. Just be confident. I'm OK."

Dahlkoetter advises athletes to visualize positive images, mentally rehearsing what they want to achieve. She tells them to use positive self-statements to coach themselves. "You might say 'I believe in myself, I'm ready and rested and ready to go."'

Finally, she teaches them to focus on the present and center their minds and bodies, perhaps by breathing in and out and telling themselves, "I'm breathing in, I'm breathing out."

"There's that inner critic inside and your mind is telling you 'you can't do this' " she says. "When you're centered, then it takes all the worry about the future and the concerns about the past and they throw that away so they can be fully in the present, because that's all we really have control over."