Still not fast enough
Tao admits she needs to do some soul
searching after London
Singapore's Tao Li after the heats of the 100m
backstroke yesterday, in which she clocked 1min 01.6sec to shave
half a second off the previous time. She failed to advance. Tao has
admitted that having three coaches in the last four years had not
been ideal for her preparations. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED
PRESS
AT THE GAMES
BY TERRENCE VOON
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
LONDON - There was no defiant finish, no big swim for the big meet,
and no place in the final.
There was at least a national record, but the evidence
from Tao Li's 2012 Olympic campaign points to one cold fact: She is
still fast - just not as fast as the rest.
Singapore's No. 1 female swimmer lowered her own national
mark in the women's 100m backstroke yesterday, clocking 1min
01.6sec to shave half a second off the previous time.
She did not make it out of the heats, nor did she expect
to.
Her real assignment here was to reach the final of the
100m butterfly, a mission which ended one day earlier, in the
semi-finals.
Tao, the country's great hope for an Olympic swimming
medal after her Beijing breakthrough four years ago, finished 10th
out of the 16 semi-finalists.
She touched the wall in 58.18sec - faster than the 59
seconds she had been posting for the last two years. But not fast
enough.
All eight finalists for last night's final at the
Aquatics Centre qualified with sub 58-second timings. American Dana
Vollmer and Australia's Alicia Coutts - the favourites - went under
57.
From fifth at the Beijing Games to 10th in London, Tao
knew she had some explaining to do.
"The result was not too bad," said the swimmer. "But
there was really nothing I could do - the others were simply too
fast.
"After the Olympics, I need to evaluate myself, and
hopefully do better at the Asian Games."
Tao has not been herself since her astonishing swim in
Beijing, where she clocked an Asian record of 57.54sec en route to
the final.
That was done in a now-banned supersuit, but even without
it, she admitted that she should be nailing down similar times.
So why isn't she?
Since Beijing, she has had three coaching changes, with
Ian Turner coming in for fellow Briton Barry Prime less than 12
months ago. Prime's departure was said to be a mutual decision, but
she now says it could have backfired.
"If I hadn't changed coaches, I believe my standards
would have been one step higher," she admitted. "The problem is not
with Ian - we communicate well and he gives me the freedom to
express myself.
"Perhaps my time with him is too short, and it wasn't
possible to make a smooth transition between his training and the
previous training."
Singapore's chef de mission Jessie Phua, who watched
Tao's swim from the stands, insisted the swimmer had excelled in
spite of a "very spluttering four years of preparation".
"I'd like to challenge any athlete who's had three change of
coaches in the last four years to come up with this kind of
performance," she told The Straits Times.
"(She needs) competition opportunities so that she can travel on
a regular basis, where she can be challenged regularly, where her
developmental programme is not disrupted.
"If we don't give her any more of these hiccups, she'll
bring home a medal in 2016."
By the time of the Rio Olympics, Tao will be 26. She
knows she will have to work harder just to get there.
Said Turner: "She's getting a little bit old, but there
were girls in (the 100m fly semi-finals) that were significantly
older than her as well.
"It's very disappointing (that she didn't make the
final), but let me say this to you, when she went in, she was
ranked 24th (in the world) and she finished 10th.
"Perhaps we're hoping for too much, but hope springs
eternal."
Tao has no more time to
waste
By TERRENCE
VOON
COMMENTARY
MINUTES before Tao Li's biggest swim in four years, there was a
familiar face next to her.
Roger Fitzgerald, a world-class physiotherapist from
Australia, had been flown in to make sure every muscle in the
swimmer's body was primed to explode for the semi-finals of the
women's 100m butterfly.
The 52-year-old muscle energy expert has worked with the
Australian swim team for over a decade, rubbing down Olympic gold
medallists like Grant Hackett and Keiren Perkins at the Games.
Fitzgerald did not come cheap, and that was reportedly
why the Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) dropped his services
in 2007.
He is here in London now, "to make the water whistle past
her ears", he told me.
It did not quite work out that way for Tao in the end,
but sparing no effort - and expense - is the least Singapore can do
for its best and brightest female swimmer.
But let's not stop with Fitzgerald. If Tao is to redeem
herself in Rio four years later, she will need a world-class
eco-sytem around her.
She will need to be supported. She will need to be
pushed. And if that means basing herself abroad for a training
stint, so be it.
Unfortunately, it is no secret that she prefers to stay
put in Singapore, where she trains at the Singapore Swimming Club
with Ian Turner and is surrounded by friends and family.
"I have a very good coach and good resources here," she
said in a pre-Olympics interview. "Singaporeans like to say that
going overseas is good, but I feel it's already very good
here."
Sure, going abroad will require some getting used to. But
the pay-off will be worth it: fewer distractions, a more focused
state of mind, and the bonus of training alongside other
world-class swimmers.
Athletes can sometimes bend the elements, but it is their
environment which shapes them.
The United States - as Singapore's Joseph Schooling has
shown - could be a wise choice. It has a highly competitive college
swimming scene, cutting-edge sports science support and a rich
tradition of producing world champions.
Australia, also a top swimming nation, is another.
Even Singapore's chef de mission, Jessie Phua, wondered
aloud yesterday if top athletes like Tao face "a glass ceiling"
back home.
The swimmer will hate the idea of uprooting herself, but
elite sport is rarely a convenient pursuit.
The bald truth is that the 2016 Olympics are her last
chance to realise her potential - and she cannot afford to cool her
heels in Singapore until then.
"The standards in Rio are going to be even higher,"
warned head coach Ang Peng Siong.
In other words, no more mucking around.
And certainly no more playing musical chairs with
coaches.
Turner, the former head of Britain's national programme,
must be given much more than the 12 months he had, to put Tao back
on the straight and narrow for one more Olympic final. Or perhaps,
even a medal.
Tao will be the first to tell us that it is not over yet.
She has the talent, the explosive kicking, and the mindset of a
champion who adores the big occasion.
Powered by extra funds from the government's Olympic
Pathway Programme, she is still our best bet in women's
swimming.
But four years have already been squandered. She cannot
afford to waste another four.
Part B, Sport, The Straits Times, Monday, July 30 2012, Pg
B17
