“Once I started winning, people’s attitudes changed”: Swimmer Yip Pin Xiu reflects on her Paralympic career

I started swimming when I was five years old, but never thought I would be a professional athlete. After all, when I was a child, I almost never saw anyone else in a wheelchair, let alone swimmers.

My parents would tell me to study hard and get good grades, and maybe I could become a lawyer. They knew of people in wheelchairs who were lawyers, but they didn’t know any athletes.

I was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a child (we later learnt it was Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease) and by the time I was 12, I had to use a wheelchair. But in the water, it was different. I could outswim my brothers, and I didn’t need an ankle brace, or a wheelchair, or someone’s support. I was free.

When I realised I was pretty good, I began thinking about swimming competitively. I was 12 when I was approached by the Singapore Disability Sports Council and asked to take part in a swim meet. I said yes. Four years later, I competed in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and won the gold with a new world record. And here we are, almost 20 years later.

My childhood made me very tough, but it was also very lonely in some ways. I didn’t see any representation of other people with disabilities. Other kids bullied me – making fun of my hair, which has always been big and wavy, and became very dry from swimming.

When I was thinking about applying to the Singapore Sports School, people said things like, “Why would someone like her be allowed in? Doesn’t she know it’s for the cream of the crop?” Luckily, I had the support of people who believed in my potential. By then, I had also heard of Theresa Goh (who later won a bronze for breaststroke at the 2016 Rio Paralympics), and she showed what was possible.

In the end, I wanted to stay with my coach and decided not to apply for sports school, but I wouldn’t have let the naysayers stop me. Once I started winning, people’s attitudes changed. They saw that a person with disabilities could excel and represent their country. This is the power of representation, and it is something I’m proud of. Winning my first Paralympics gold, it was 90 per cent joy and 10 per cent relief.

After that, it became the opposite, and it was stressful. At one point, my identity was so tied to being an athlete that it really affected my mental health. What made a difference was finding balance in my life – I thought about life after swimming. I opened a swim school, started giving motivational talks, and became more involved with the Purple Parade to advocate on disability issues.

But there’s still a lot to do, and the competitor in me knows that we can do better. I knew from a young age that people would always say, “Oh, that’s the girl in the wheelchair” – and that’s okay. What’s important to me is that I keep using my platform to advocate for others.

Photography Angela Guo
Art direction Ray Ticsay
Coordination Chelsia Tan
Hair & makeup Angel Gwee, using Shu Uemura and Davines

To learn more about the 60 women who have shaped Singapore as we know it today, click here.