Four-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson is in Dubai this week as an ambassador of series sponsors HSBC, giving an insight to some of the players as to what it means to compete at an Olympic Games.

Ahead of the Dubai Sevens, the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games star presented the USA team with their jerseys in a special shirt presentation accompanied by coach Mike Friday and captain Madison Hughes.

The Dubai tournament this weekend marks the start of both the men's and women's series with 10 and five rounds respectively to come before 24 teams head to Rio to compete for the first-ever sevens medals.

Having been a part of many Olympic Games, both as an athlete and more recently a pundit, Johnson knows what it means for a sport to be involved in the Games.

"I think it is a fantastic opportunity for the sport, it has the ability to raise the profile as rugby as a whole and certainly for sevens," said Johnson.

"With the inclusion into the Olympics it will provide a tremendous amount of promotional opportunities and exposes the sport to many more people. It will also increase the funding going into the sport, with different Olympic federations now allocating funds to the development of the sport.

"For the Olympic movement it will provide some benefits too, you now have a new team sport and a team sport where the pinnacle is the Olympics unlike some others like basketball or football."

Johnson still holds the 400 metre record, although lost his 200m record to a certain Usain Bolt. But having competed in Atlanta he is fully aware of what it takes to become an Olympian, and what it takes to become a champion.

"For the most part for the Games it is the same amount of preparation as it takes to be a great athlete in any sport. It takes great skill and honing of that ability and skill, and developing it over the years.

"But the difference comes with the Olympics where you understand that there is no next year and in many cases because of the four-year cycle it is a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

"Because of that the preparation becomes an even bigger factor, and preparation is everything. You can have a fantastic year, or season, but if you don't get it right on the day it doesn't matter how good you were yesterday you need to get it right on the day. That is the nature of the Olympic Games and it creates incredible drama and why people watch it, because you see people, young people, realise there dreams."