"There was also a period between Peter (Churchill, her former coach) ending his contract and the appointment of Barry (Prime) as my coach when I wasn't training much and didn't really have a structured programme.

This, along with some other issues, distracted me from training."

Australian Churchill and Tao Li parted ways in April 2010, and Briton Prime was appointed in June that year.

The 1.60m-tall swimmer dissolved her partnership with Prime in August last year, and Turner took over about a month later.

Of Turner, she said: "Even before Barry was appointed, I wanted John Dempsey (ex-SSA centre of excellence head coach) to coach me, but negotiations fell through both times. After training under Ian, I find him quite okay. He has experience at the top level and has coached many world-class swimmers.

"I am hoping I won't need to change my coach in the next few years because it'll break the rhythm of my training."

Personal best

At this year's Olympics, American Dana Vollmer won the women's 100m fly in a world-record time of 55.98, with China's Lu Ying (56.87) and Australia's Alicia Coutts (56.94) comingin second and third, respectively.

Britain's Ellen Gandy finished last in the final in 57.76.

Based on the times, Tao Li believes her personal best of 57.54 wouldn't be too far off a place in the 2016 final, and may be even a podium finish.

She said: "I don't think many swimmers will be clocking sub-56 timings like Dana Vollmer even in four years' time, but I think a sub-57 second time would be needed for a medal and my PB is just about half a second off that."

Asked if she felt she had missed out on her best chance of winning an Olympic medal this year, Tao Li said: "I did consider before if it was still possible to win a medal at 26.

"In the past I didn't think that it would be possible, but now there are a lot of champions who are between 25and 27, with improvements in technology and sports science.

"Success involves both hard work and natural talent, andI think it is possible."

sayheng@sph.com.sg

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