Erickson arrived in the Olympic village yesterday morning after a six-week training block in Switzerland and Italy.

His wife Rachel and Oliver will be nearby as he waits to compete in the 20km and 50km events.

While athletes who have already finished their Olympic journey, it's easy to get caught up in the hype of the village.

But while Erickson didn't have a distraction when he competed in Beijing four years ago, he says "rolling around on the floor" with Oliver could be the perfect preparation for a surprise medal.

Oliver turns one on August 10 - the day before Erickson races in the 50km walk.

"He's a lucky bugger, he gets to have his first birthday in London," Erickson said.

"It's going to be great to have them for a bit of support in London. It's a lot different having them here, balancing life, training and family.

"But it's been really refreshing, coming home from training and rolling around on the floor to play with the little guy for the afternoon."

Jared Tallent emerged as Australia's leading race walker when he won a silver medal in the 50km and a bronze medal in the 20km in Beijing four years ago.

In contrast, Erickson got disqualified during the race because of his technique.

He's determined to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Watching Tallent's rise has helped inspire Erickson and increase his belief of being in medal contention in London.

The duo have been training together at altitude in Europe and have been at the Australian Institute of Sport base in Italy for the past month.

A more settled build up to his second Olympics has convinced Erickson he is capable of challenging the world's best.

"I basically didn't have a bad training day up at altitude for a month and it's been really solid," Erickson said.

"I'm really looking forward to what will hopefully be a good performance.

"If I look back critically my preparation wasn't as good as the last Olympics and I'm a stronger athlete now.

"I've been able to get through a lot more training and I didn't feel that great on the day four years ago, but I don't feel anywhere near that."

His goal is to break his personal best time of 1hr22min20sec for the 20km race.

He set that personal best in May this year and hopes to slice as much as two minutes of the time.

"I'll see where I end up if I get that PB," Erickson said.

"I think that will get me in the top eight and we'll go from there. My aim is to go out with the lead pack and basically everyone goes out and whoever can hold on is in the mix for a medal.

"When you train against a dual Olympic medalist you know you're going well and I'm closer to Jared than I ever have been before so hopefully a big performance is on the cards."