Ye's dressing to kill and swimming to thrill (2)

After seeing the recent controversies swirling around swim star Sun Yang, Ye's coach, Xu Guoyi, hopes his student can remain relatively low-profile after drawing worldwide attention at the 2012 Olympics.

"The Olympic title is a big burden for her at such a young age in terms of all the commercial and media interest coming her way," said Xu, who coached Ye since 2008.

"Only by taking off that big hat can she be a normal athlete and focus on training and improving again."

Inspired by renowned NBA coach Phil Jackson, who put great value on inner-strength by having his players read books that he selected, Xu also presented a book, Di Diao, literally interpreted as "keeping low key" to Ye as a birthday gift last month.

Ye read a couple of pages on her flight to Brazil and said she understood Xu's message was to "keep yourself grounded".

That she is.

Ye didn't accept as many commercial offers or invitations as Sun after the Games. Except for the Brazil trip, Ye has spent most of her time in the team's high-altitude training camp in Yunnan province while Sun struggled through a coaching dispute.

"We turned down many offers (from sponsors)," Xu said. "It (commercial assignment) has to be controlled. Earning money but missing practice ... it's not worth it for an athlete."

"I often tell her that her most beautiful moments are in the pool, not in the limelight or on the stage. That's not where you show your true worth. The swimming pool is your territory."

Xu's philosophy continues to reap rewards as Ye bagged four gold medals at the Zhengzhou meet, including two unexpected titles in 200m events - the freestyle and backstroke.

Boasting an exceptionally strong last-leg freestyle sprint and much-improved backstroke efficiency, Ye showed the potential to dominate in other events apart from her signature medley combo.

"Two medley events are my main focus (at the Worlds). I will try other events in training and lead-up races, but I just take it as extra practice for now," said Ye, who claimed her first world championship title in the 200m IM at the Shanghai Worlds in 2011.

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