U.S. shot putter Adam Nelson tries to wrap his mind around gold

"Full extension. Express. Thrust, release, follow through. Feel and I'm doing this now. I tap your forehead, it's your turn to throw. Move toward the laser, so lasered, so locked in, so absorbed in the moment and your express word. POWER."

There is also New Age-y tonal music playing. But this is not what it sounds like. It is not about sex but about power.

Shot-put power.

Nelson, a two-time Olympic silver medalist who will compete in the U.S. track and field Olympic trials that begin today in Eugene, Ore., is being hypnotized by Pete Siegel, whose voice rises in capital letters: POWER, THRUST, LASER.

Nelson likes his silver medals well enough. But he is tired of second place and he hopes Siegel can help him to GOLD. Nelson is speaking in capital letters too.

On Siegel's website, the hypnotist touts PowerMind, what he describes as a peak performance mental training.

"I've never defined myself by my silver medals," Nelson said. "My initial sensation, both times, was that to walk away from the field with a silver medal" is unsatisfying.

"By the time I was on the podium, my perspective had changed. But the God's honest truth, those medals are in my sock drawer. They only come out when a friend wants to see them, but most of my friends don't ask. Unless they have a loss of sanity."

The top three at the trials go to the Olympics, where Nelson twice had confounding and ultimately demoralizing second-place finishes.

At Sydney in 2000, Nelson was the gold medal favorite but finished second to Arsi Harju, a relatively unknown Finn who trained by throwing telephone poles and who had missed much of the season while tending to the illness of a relative.

Then, at Athens, Nelson and Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine threw the same distance. Bilonog won because his second throw was farthest while Nelson fouled on his other throws, including a final heave that would have been the winner had he not had a toe on the line.

"It was devastating," Nelson said. "I didn't even realize what the rule was."

So now Nelson tries again, embracing original thoughts. He has tested the use of acupuncture and chiropractors, of hot stones and masseuses.