Born in Baoding, Hebei province, to parents who were both elite swimmers, Li always had fun in the pool, since the age of four when she began swimming.

She soon realized there was, perhaps, a bright future ahead of her after collecting three medals from her maiden world championships outing in Budapest, Hungary, at just 15 years old.

Yet, the challenge from within — her lack of strength and endurance to keep up with her physical growth — slowed down Li's progress, underlined by early knockouts from the heats in both her strength events, the 400m and 800m, at her second worlds in 2019.

That was followed by further setbacks due to injuries and fatigue caused by overtraining that went beyond her young body's limit.

So desperate to get back to winning ways, Li tried everything, from distance running to road cycling, to improve her aerobic capacity whenever she was not in the water — hitting yet another hump after breaking her arm in a fall while cycling in early 2020, casting a shadow on her Tokyo Games preparation.

She refused to give up, citing inspiration from an earlier Ledecky interview that the difference between a great athlete and an Olympic champion lies in "resilience when facing setbacks".

She pushed through the injury, wearing protective gear on her arm to keep honing her stroke in the pool and continuing to run laps at a high-altitude camp in Southwest China's Yunnan province to strengthen her heart and lungs.

The hard work paid dividends on her Olympic debut in Tokyo, where Li finished third in the 400m final to win China's first female freestyle Olympic medal in the event, and was part of the quartet that won a historic 4x200m free relay gold.

"I believe that I haven't reached my full potential yet," said Li, who has signed up to a hectic schedule, bidding to swim all four individual free events from 200m to 1,500m in Singapore.

"I am still looking at the top of the podium."

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn