Singapore Paralympian gets swimming gold and smashes her own world record
Singaporeans celebrated on Saturday, after 24-year-old swimmer Yip Pin Xiu took home a gold medal and broke the world record -- also previously set by her -- at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Yip won the women's 100m backstroke S2 gold in a time of 2 minutes 7.09 seconds, smashing her own previously set world record timing of 2 minutes 8.09 seconds, which she set in a competition in Germany in 2008.
Yip beat Feng Yazhu from China who won silver, and Ukraine's Iryna Sotska who took bronze.
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Rio is Yip's third Paralympic Games, where she was Singapore's flagbearer at the opening ceremony.
This isn't Yip's first Paralympic gold medal. She made history back in 2008 in Beijing, where she became the first Singaporean to win a Paralympic gold medal. She won the gold for the 50m backstroke S3 and silver for the 50m freestyle S3.
The S3 classification refers to swimmers who don't have use of their legs, which stay in the water from hips downward and increase the amount of drag on the swimmer's body. Their hands are also not able to catch water effectively.
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Yip was born with muscular dystrophy, which progressively weakens the muscles. As a result, she now competes in the S2 category.
Back home, Singaporeans celebrated her triumph. Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, posted a congratulatory message soon after the news broke.
She also got a shoutout from fellow swimming champ Joseph Schooling, who took home a history-making first ever gold medal for Singapore last month.
In the wake of the celebrations around Schooling's win, people have been pointing out that Yip's consistent swimming performance has been largely overlooked.
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Topics Olympics
Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
