Yip Pin Xiu

Yip Pin Xiu (; born 10 January 1992) is a Singaporean backstroke para-swimmer. She is a seven-time Paralympic gold medalist and seven-time World Champion, with two world records in the Women's S2 50-metre and 100-metre backstrokes. Yip is Singapore's most decorated Paralympian and Southeast Asia's most decorated Paralympic swimmer.

Yip has Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome and competes in the S2 category for the physically impaired. Since 2005, she has won medals in international competitions such as the World Wheelchair and Amputee Games, Japan Paralympic Swimming Championships and International German Paralympic Swimming Championships. At the 2008 Summer Paralympics, she won a gold medal in the 50m backstroke and a silver medal in the 50m freestyle, setting world records in both events. At the 2016 Summer Paralympics, she won a gold medal in the 100m S2 backstroke, setting a world record for that event, and another for her 50m split. She retained her gold medals for these two events in 2020 and 2024 in a historic three-peat.

In 2009, Yip was named "Young Woman Achiever of the Year" by local magazine Her World. In honour of her feats at the Paralympic Games, she was conferred the Pingat Jasa Gemilang (Meritorious Service Medal) during the National Day Awards ceremony in 2016. More recently, Yip was crowned Sportswoman of the Year (swimming) at the Singapore Disability Sports Awards 2022. This was her third time earning this honour, having won the same award in 2019 and 2021. Her achievements have contributed to the widespread recognition of disabled athletes in the Singaporean public sphere.

Early life and education Yip Pin Xiu was born in Singapore on 10 January 1992, being the youngest of three children in her family. When Yip was five, she started swimming to improve her health and strengthen her muscles; nevertheless, by the age of thirteen, she had lost her ability to walk and had to use a wheelchair.

As a student, Yip first studied in Ai Tong Primary School at Bishan and Bendemeer Secondary School,

Swimming career

Early years Yip started swimming competitively when she was twelve years old. She set a world record time of 1 minute 00.80 seconds in the 50 metres backstroke at the US Paralympic swimming trials. She then swam the women's 50 metres backstroke finals in a time of 58.75 seconds to win the gold medal.

The success of Yip and Laurentia Tan, who won two bronze medals in equestrian events, Letters to The Straits Times criticised the poor coverage of the Paralympics. When the issues were raised in Parliament, MCYS parliamentary secretary Teo Ser Luck promised to study plans to give disabled athletes greater support and to include them in sporting programmes such as Project 0812, a training programme for top Singaporean sportspeople.

2016 Summer Paralympics Yip participated in the 2016 Summer Paralympics. On 10 September 2016, Yip swam in the finals of the 100 m backstroke, S2 class; her time of 2:07.09 was a new S2 world record, earning her a Paralympic gold medal. Her 59.38 split for the first 50 m of the race was also a new S2 world record; in both cases she overwrote her own world leading times. Her medal was Singapore's first at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. On 16 September, Yip won her (and Singapore's) second gold medal of the 2016 Games, this time in the 50 m backstroke finals, S2 class with a time of 1:00.33.

2018 Asian Paralympics Yip also participated in the 2018 Asian Para Games, and won one gold medal and two bronze medals in total. On 8 October, she won her first gold medal for the 50 m backstroke, S1-4 class, and on 9 October, her first bronze medal for the 100 m freestyle, S1-4 class event. On 12 October, she won her second bronze medal on the 50 m freestyle, S1-4 class event with a time of 1:04.68, behind Peng Qiuping of China and Gabidullina Zulfiya of Kazakhstan, with times of 43.48s and 45.51s, respectively.

2020 Summer Paralympics Yip participated in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. She won two gold medals, the women's 100m backstroke S2 and the women's 50m backstroke S2. She subsequently received S$400,000 by the SNPC; S$200,000 for each gold medal. Her cash incentives was doubled to S$800,000 after she was sponsored by Singapore's DBS Bank and the Tote Board.

2023 Para Swimming World Series During the Para Swimming World Series Australia 2023, Yip clinched the gold medal in the Women's 100m backstroke multi-class event. She later also bagged her second gold medal in the Women's 50m backstroke on the final day of the competition.

2024 Summer Paralympics In 2022, the SNPC announced that the cash reward for a gold medal in the 2024 Paris Paralympics would be further increased to S$500,000. Yip participated in the Games and achieved a historic three-peat by winning the gold medal once more in the women's 100m backstroke S2 event.

Political career On 17 September 2018, Yip became a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP). She was sworn into the Parliament of Singapore on 1 October 2018 and served until 23 June 2020, a term of approximately two years.

Post-swimming career As of 1 January 2022, Yip was serving on the Athlete Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

She collaborated with Claudia Poh on Poh's "It Is Only In Water I Can Move Freely" fashion collection.

Personal life In February 2022, Yip was awarded the President's Award for Inspiring Achievement in recognition of her contributions to sports and community work.

Her coaches have included Ang Peng Siong, Mark Chay and Mick Massey.

Honours

Honorary Doctor of Laws, Singapore Management University

Others In February 2025, she became the first para-athlete to have a wax figure at Madame Tussauds Singapore.