FREEDOM is one thing that we sometimes take for granted.

But freedom is one small price to pay if you want to be an athlete who is as talented as teenage table tennis player Isabelle Li.

The 15-year-old Singapore Sports School student is among the top-100 table tennis players in her age-group worldwide, and has done well in competitions such as the Taoyuan International last year, where she won a gold medal.

Not that it was all talent and no hard work.

A typical weekday for the 15-year-old Singapore Sports School student starts at 6.30am and ends 15 hours later, after a full day's worth of school lessons, training and revision.

She then has one hour of recreation time, before hitting the sack at 10.30pm.

The polite teenager would sometimes train on Saturdays as well, leaving Sunday as her only day off.

'I do occasionally think that my life lacks excitement,' Isabelle said.

'There are times when I do miss being able to just go anywhere and do whatever I want at any time.

'I don't really have the time or chance to go out and make new friends.

'Moreover, I have to travel overseas a lot, so over time, I find myself drifting away from some of the friends I already have,' she added.

But she acknowledges that this is one sacrifice she has to make in order to do well in her sport.

And she does make the effort to catch up with her friends and especially her family, who have been nothing but supportive of her sporting endeavours.

'They have been really understanding,' she said.

'They know that when competitions come around, I have to forgo my weekends with them.'

Which is why she especially treasures whatever family time she gets when she is free.

'I think I'm closer to my parents now because the time we have together is so limited,' she said.

'That is why we value it even more.'

Maturity

If the former Chong Fu Primary School pupil displays a maturity that is beyond her tender years, it is because the competitive nature of sports forces a young athlete to toughen up.

'As a student athlete, you tend to have a lot of eyes on you, so you have to grow up faster than everyone else,' explained Isabelle.

That has helped her cope with the stress of participating in competitions and being in the limelight, which she admits she used to feel when she first started out.

And with the full support of her family and the nation behind her, Isabelle is heading into the upcoming Asian Youth Games with a clear head.

'The Asian Youth Games would be a platform for me to see where I stand in the international stage, so I'll definitely be trying my very, very best,' she said.

The writer is a newsroom intern.