Timeline: How Singapore swimmer Yip Pin Xiu blazed a trail to successive Paralympic glory

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SINGAPORE: Already one of Singapore’s most legendary athletes, swimmer Yip Pin Xiu added another feather in her cap with a gold medal in the women’s 50m backstroke S2 event on Sunday (Sep 1).

It was her second gold of the Paris Paralympics, and her seventh overall since making her Games debut in 2008.

She has also scored a historic three-peat of Paralympic golds in the 50m and 100m backstroke S2 events, emerging champion in both at the 2016, 2020 and 2024 editions.

CNA traces the 32-year-old’s journey.

EARLY YEARS

Yip was born with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which causes the progressive loss of muscle tissue and touch. 

As a child, she had to wear an ankle foot brace, leading to people staring at her on the street.

In school, some classmates would ostracise and even throw things at her while teachers turned a blind eye. 

“Primary 1 to Primary 4 was a bit tough because when kids are younger, they don’t know how to react to different people. As long as somebody is different from them, they treat them differently,” she said in a podcast last year.

“I had to go through different things, but because of all this, it made me really tough.”

Things were slightly better in Primary 5 and 6 with some friends who made sure she felt included, Yip recalled.

She then became wheelchair-bound from about 12 years old.

In the water, however, she felt free.

Yip’s first introduction to the pool was at age 6, when her two older brothers Alvin and Augustus were taking lessons at a Kallang swimming complex.

“It wasn’t until I found swimming that I truly found myself,” she has said.

DEVELOPING A WINNING HABIT

In 2004, she was talent-scouted by a volunteer from the Singapore Disability Sports Council, and began to swim competitively.

Her first competitive meet – the national junior para championships – was just months later. She bagged golds in all her events.

While balancing swimming training with her studies at Bendemeer Secondary School, Yip competed in her first international meet in 2005.

At the World Wheelchair and Amputee Games, the then-teenager won two gold medals and a bronze.

Her star continued to rise in the next few years, with more gold medals in a number of international meets.

Yip was the first para-athlete to be inducted into the Singapore Sports Hall of Fame. She has been named Sportswomen of the Year at the Singapore Disability Sports Awards three times.

OLYMPIC HISTORY

Yip made her Paralympic debut at Beijing 2008, at the age of 16.

There, she won gold in the 50m backstroke S3 and took silver in the 50m freestyle S3. 

That was Singapore’s first-ever Paralympic gold. Prior to Yip’s victory, the only para-athlete to clinch a Games medal was equestrienne Laurentia Tan, who had clinched two bronzes just days earlier.

Yip followed it up with her first world championships medal two years later.

At the next Paralympics in 2012, she missed out on the podium, finishing fourth in the 50m and 100m freestyle S3 finals.

The 50m backstroke S3, which she had won four years prior, was not included in the programme in London.

But that was merely a blip for the remarkable Singaporean as she bounced back by winning two gold medals at Rio 2016.

Competing in the 100m backstroke S2, she set a world record time of 2:07.09, which remains today. Her split timing of 59.38 in the first lap of the event also continues to stand as a world mark.

Days later, she triumphed in the 50m backstroke S2 and become the first Singaporean athlete to win two gold medals at a single Paralympics.

At the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago, she retained her titles in both events.

And at Paris this year, Yip notched two historic three-peats to etch her name, once again, into Singapore’s history books. 

She remains the only Singaporean para-athlete to have won gold at the Paralympics.