Chris Tomlinson has been inspired by training partner Yamile Aldama's achievements as he targets European and Olympic long jump glory.
Tomlinson finished fifth in the Olympics in Athens in 2004 but failed to make the final in Beijing four years later and has struggled to showcase his talent on the world stage.
But the 30-year-old from Middlesbrough is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Aldama this summer after the 39-year-old mother of two won the world indoor triple jump title in Istanbul in March.
"I've been training with her for nearly four years so we've had that experience to feed off and there is no doubt she is a very knowledgeable triple jumper," Tomlinson said ahead of this week's European Championships in Helsinki.
"She's 40 in August and has been a world-class athlete for nigh-on 20 years which is an achievement in itself. As a whole I've learnt from that, but what the world indoors did was a simple 'If she can do it, why can't I do it?'
"She came back as world indoor champion and she's 39. So why can't I be Olympic champion? If someone had said a year and a half ago, when her son Diego was born, she's going to be world indoor champion, one of the favourites for Olympic gold, everyone would have laughed.
"But she has shown you can do whatever if you believe in it. So much of this sport is belief. British athletes now are starting to believe, we are seeing more athletes come out of the woodwork and across the board we are at a competitive level and can bring back a lot of medals (from the London Games). A lot of that comes from belief."
Tomlinson, who will be looking to press his claims for Olympic selection when the long jump gets under way on Friday, also points to the example of high jumper Robbie Grabarz, who lost his lottery funding at the end of a poor 2011 season but is ranked second in the world this year and a real contender for Olympic medals.
"A year ago most people wouldn't have known who Robbie Grabarz was, now he's a real Olympic gold-medal contender," added Tomlinson, who was born in Middlesbrough but now lives in London and trains at Lee Valley.
"I shared a room with him in Rome (at the Diamond League meeting) and he said I've jumped 2.31m in training and I'm going to jump well. That's all there was to it and he jumped 2.33m to win.
"When I was very young I was in the team with the likes of Colin Jackson, Jonathan Edwards and Steve Backley and saw those guys winning medals, and then we had lean years when we didn't have athletes getting medals but I think it's now coming full circle.
"It's being inspired by one or two people going out there doing it, like Mo Farah can beat the Africans, why can't we do that?"
