Editor’s note: This article was first published on 28 August 2021. It was updated on 30 August 2024.
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Yip Pin Xiu has made headlines in Singapore for winning gold — yet again — in the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
This makes her a six-time Paralympic gold medallist who’s come up tops in the last three Paralympic Games.
As one of Singapore’s shining sporting heroes, Yip Pin Xiu doesn’t let her muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that slowly breaks down the muscles and affects her eyesight, get in the way of her ambitions.
Instead, the 32-year-old athlete keeps adding medals and records to her collection and shows little sign of stopping.
Here are seven facts that prove that Yip Pin Xiu was born a natural winner.
“It may sound clichéd, but I truly belong in the water. I can walk, do handstands, and perform somersaults,” said Ms Yip in an interview with SportsSG.
“It is only in the water that I can move freely and do whatever anyone else can do.”
Ms Yip was born with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and lost her ability to walk at 11 years old.
She grew to love swimming as it gave her a sense of freedom.
Source: @yippinxiu on Instagram
What started as a weekly family outing to the pool became serious when she was talent-scouted to join junior events.
For those who have kept an eye on her career, seeing the swimmer atop the podium is nothing new.
The Straits Times (ST) reported that Ms Yip had clinched over 30 medals from local and international swim meets by the age of 15.
For the prodigious talent who first competed when she was just 12, it seemed like wherever she went, she’d come home with a medal around her neck.
Ms Yip won her first national-level medal at the 2004 National Swimming Championships, where she clinched a bronze medal.
While most students approach the GCE O-Level exams by spending hours studying at their desks, Ms Yip had to make time for other commitments.
Back in 2008, while preparing for her first Paralympics, she was allowed to delay her studies for a year to focus on training full-time.
This was so that she could pour everything into her O’s the following year.
However, ever the challenger, she felt as though she could manage both at the same time.
With the unyielding support of her parents, Yip Chee Kiong and Margaret Chong, she pushed through.
Her parents were reportedly willing to overlook her grades in favour of supporting their daughter’s decision.
When Ms Yip clinched gold at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, there was much debate regarding her monetary reward.
According to the Singapore National Olympic Council, athletes who claim gold medals at the Olympic Games are rewarded with S$1 million.
However, Paralympians who achieved similar feats were entitled to only a tenth of that amount.
Following her stellar performance in Beijing, which saw Ms Yip bring home Singapore’s first-ever gold medal in the Olympics or Paralympics, public criticism of the disparity between prize money was rife and the matter was discussed in Parliament.
The cash incentive was then increased to S$200,000 and now stands at S$500,000 since the most recent adjustment in 2022.
Smashing a world record is not something that happens every day. However, Ms Yip defied the odds at the Asean Para Games in 2015.
As there was a lack of competitors in the class she usually swims in, she had to compete in the S5 division — a category that had competitors with better-functioning limbs.
Competition aside, she set forth and achieved a time of 1:01.61 seconds in the 50m backstroke event.
The timing smashed the world record — set by Chinese swimmer Feng Yazhu in 2012 — by a whole 1.39 seconds.
After her exploits in 2015, no one has come close to eclipsing her performance.
Ms Yip continues to hold the world records for the 50m and 100m backstroke (S2) events. The latter was achieved at the 2016 Rio Paralympics where she set a world record time of 2:07.09.
Interestingly, the fastest timing before that also belonged to Ms Yip when she clocked 2min 9.79sec in the IPC Swimming European Open Championships in Portugal in May 2016.
That year, she was conferred the Pingat Jasa Gemilang (Meritorious Service Medal).
Despite what seems like a smooth journey to the top, Ms Yip’s condition has continued to deteriorate over the years.
Due to her worsening condition, she even switched styles between front crawl to backstroke.
As a result, she spends hours perfecting her technique, improvising on every small detail to gain a competitive edge.
Source: @Paralympics on X
“Every time my condition deteriorates, I have to put in more hours in training and go to more physiotherapy sessions,” said Ms Yip to Sports.Sg.
In 2023, the athlete was not sure if the Paris Paralympics would be her “swansong”.
Even then, she said that she would “take each one like it might be the very last time” she swims at the Paralympics.
Now that Ms Yip has clinched the gold medal in the 100m backstroke S2 event at this Paralympic Games, she will next compete in the 50m backstroke S2.
While she sees the former as her main event, the devoted athlete still plans to “swim [her] heart out” at the next one.
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Featured image adapted from Paralympic.org and Sport Singapore on Facebook.
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