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COMMENTARY
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But whether or not Tao Li graduates from a promising rookie to serious challenger - to Australian Libby Trickett's 100 metres butterfly title - at the next Olympics will depend on decisions the swimmer must make now.
In Tao Li's own words, she came from 'nowhere to be among the top eight swimmers in the world'.
But how does she ensure she remains in that elite company?
At just 18, the Olympic rookie who became the first Singapore swimmer to qualify for an Olympic final is still an athlete yet to reach her full potential.
And to better herself, she is faced with two choices: Take the familiar route and continue training in Singapore or head overseas - Australia or the United States the likely destinations.
Tao, her family and coach Peter Churchill are leaning towards the former. The 18-year-old still has two more years at the Singapore Sports School and wants to finish her secondary school education there.
Her mother Li Yan, a swimming coach in Singapore, also prefers that her only child stays in the Republic.
Ditto for Australian coach Churchill.
Their argument is that it has been proven over the last two years that training in Singapore has worked. Why fix something that is not broken?
Tao Li won on her major Games debut - the 2005 South-east Asia Games.
A year later, she became the Asian Games champion in the 50m butterfly, again on her debut. This past week, she crowned her first Olympic appearance with an Asian record and a place in the final, finishing fifth.
What Tao Li needs more, Churchill said, is regular high-quality meets and overseas training stints, which will cost around $50,000 a year. She needs to target three or four a year and then prepare herself around them.
But when most of the world's top swimmers are either from or training in Australia or the US, there is something to be said about their programmes.
The strength of the US system lies in its college programme, which provides regular top-level meets for swimmers.
Regular, high-level competition is what Tao Li really needs now. Her track record at the Asian Games and in Beijing shows she excels when pushed to the limit.
Which is why, at her request, the Sports School brought in two China boys just to give her the competition she needed in training ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
It was the only way she was going to get high-level training in a Singapore system where she is miles ahead of everyone else.
The US system can provide that, with the bonus of a university degree to boot. As the fifth-best butterfly swimmer at the Olympics, she can probably walk into any US college on a swimming scholarship. Admission is not a concern.
Australia, where Trickett is from, may not have a competitive environment as comprehensive and regular as the US. But with a rich heritage of producing top butterfly swimmers - bronze medallist Jessicah Schipper is also from Down Under - that option cannot be ignored.
But Tao Li would probably require a sponsor if she is to be based in Australia, where sports scholarships are few and far between.
To stay or go, she is not the first Asian to land in this predicament.
Indian 400m hurdler P.T.Usha was offered athletic scholarships after finishing fourth at the 1984 Olympics. She declined and never enjoyed similar success again.
Closer to home, footballer Fandi Ahmad was offered a contract by Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam in 1982. He turned it down - a decision he regrets till today.
Tao Li says: 'I want to go to the London Olympics and win.'
To realise her dream, she and those in charge of Project 0812 - which has been set up to fund those aspirations - need to sit down and decide quickly, whether those dreams are best chased in Singapore or overseas.
The four-year clock to London starts ticking now.
