Tao Li, who became the first Singaporean to qualify for an Olympic swimming final, was mobbed by dozens of her ecstatic schoolmates from the Singapore Sports School at Terminal 3.

Also present was Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan, who commended the teenager's achievements in the pool.

'She's helped to set a benchmark for budding athletes here and we have to ensure that our system is finetuned to continue this good work," he said.

Tao Li, 18, broke the Asian record at the Beijing Games last week and will now a take a break before resuming training in earnest next month.

Three other Singapore swimmers, Nicolette Teo, Quah Ting Wen and Lynette Lim, also arrived home on Monday morning.

Quah, who turned 16 on Monday, was greeted with a birthday cake and balloons from her classmates at Raffles Girls School.