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}} Tao Li (; born 10 January 1990) is a China-born Singaporean competitive swimmer specializing in the backstroke and butterfly stroke. A Singapore Sports School student, Tao has represented Singapore at the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) and Asian Games and holds several national records. She won four gold medals and a bronze at the 2005 SEA Games in the Philippines, and reached the finals of the women's 50 metres, 100 metres and 200 metres butterfly events at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne though she did not gain any medals. In December 2006, Tao took a gold medal at the 50 metres butterfly in Doha's 2006 Asian Games, beating China's multi-gold medallist Xu Yanwei and breaking her own national record in the process. She became Singapore's most medalled athlete at the 2007 SEA Games in Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat), Thailand, winning four gold medals. Earlier in the year, she also became the first Singaporean female swimmer to reach a FINA World Aquatics Championships final, finishing seventh in the 50 metres butterfly. Tao made her Olympic début for Singapore at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She qualified for the 100 metres finals, ranking fourth in the semifinals with a time of 57.54 seconds and setting two Asian records in two days. She thus became the first Singaporean swimmer to enter an Olympic final. She emerged fifth at the women's 100 metres butterfly finals with a time of 57.99 seconds. ==Early life and education== Tao Li was born on 10 January 1990〔.〕 in Wuhan, Hubei,〔.〕 in the People's Republic of China,〔.〕 the only child of Tao Ran and his wife Li Yan, who were both former provincial swimmers and are now swimming coaches.〔.〕 Her early years were spent in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. She started swimming at the age of five, and had started competitive swimming by the time she was ten. In her first contest she won two gold medals and broke two age records.〔 On one occasion at a particular local meet that she was confident of winning, she had her parents attend. However, she lost and was so upset and worried about "losing face" that she asked her parents not to come for future competitions. While she has now overcome that fear, her parents still keep to the "tradition" of not attending her meets in order not to distract her. In 2002, at the age of 13 years, Tao was brought to Singapore by her mother.〔.〕 It was difficult for her parents to decide to send her to Singapore, and her father was initially against the idea as at the time she was training with a provincial swimming team and earning a monthly salary of RMB500, and there was a good chance she might do well enough to join the Chinese national team.〔.〕〔 However, they decided to do so after she was deemed too short for the national team.〔.〕 As her mother was not earning much, she found covering Tao's swimming expenses difficult.〔.〕 In addition, because Tao's English was not good, she had to join a Primary 5 class in Queenstown Primary School though she was three years older than her classmates and found things tough-going.〔〔 However, she worked hard and took extra language lessons, and now converses fluently in English.〔 Tao became a Singapore citizen in August 2005.〔〔 She is a Secondary 3 student at the Singapore Sports School in 2008, and is expected to continue her education there until she graduates with a diploma in sports science under an arrangement between the school and the Auckland University of Technology.〔.〕 She trains under the school's swimming coach Peter Churchill.〔 Previously at the Aquatic Performance Swim Club under former Olympian Ang Peng Siong from 2001, following what was reported to be a contract dispute she started training in October 2006 with another former Olympian, David Lim, at Swimfast Aquatic Club.〔〔; .〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tao Li」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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