The format of many sports is such that an athlete can have a significant set-back early in the event or game, leaving him or her staring at a big defeat before getting half-way through.

It might just be a little bit of bad luck combined with a bad decision or two and suddenly it seems the game has gone from your grasp. It can even leave you in a state of shock - ‘how could the one event I’ve been preparing for for years be going wrong?’

It seems to happen to sailor Ben Ainslie at each Olympics. In both the 1996 and 2000 Olympics he finished in the 20s in the first race. Then in 2004 he scored a first race DSQ in Athens. Here in Qingdao, for the Beijing Olympics he had his best first race, a 10th - another relative dud.

But he finished with Silver, Gold and another Gold in Athens. Tomorrow, with little doubt, he’ll win again.

What should an athlete do after a crap start to his or her event? The range of things athletes do do covers the spectrum - some give up and go through the motions for the remainder of the event and some try to re-focus and battle on but doubts creep in and the next bit of bad fortune is terminal.

It takes significant mental toughness to overcome a set-back early in an event. Athletes have to draw deeply on their experience and training to firstly establish whether their is a significant problem with their performance that needs to be corrected. Often this isn’t the case - skills and abilities don’t disappear overnight, but the focus to execute those skills might.

Athletes, like Ainslie, who do end up performing to their potential after an early set-back know deep down that they are the best and they let their training do the work. Nothing changes.

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