August 20, 2025
SINGAPORE – Singapore’s Paralympic champion Yip Pin Xiu will be gunning for golds No. 8 and 9 – in the 50m and 100m backstroke S2 events – after confirming her intent to compete at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
After clinching her sixth and seventh titles at the Paris Paralympics in August, the 33-year-old has kept her cards close to her chest, noting that LA 2028 was “on the cards” but that her focus was on the Toyota World Para Swimming Championships, which will be held from Sept 21 to 27 at the OCBC Aquatic Centre.
Speaking at the appreciation event for the world championships’ partners at the Fairmont Singapore hotel on Aug 19, Yip said: “I think I have one more in me, (but) maybe by then I’ll say I have another one in me, but for now, I do have one more in me.
“Sports is not just about an individual, it really involves a team and a good coach. To pull that together is quite difficult, so that’s what I want to try and do this time round, to be really working with a team that can lift me up and bring me to where I want to be.”
Since making a splash on her debut at Beijing 2008, Yip has competed in four more Paralympic Games, reaping seven golds and a silver. She is also the three-peat defending champion in the 50m and 100m backstroke S2 events.
Yip and her coach Mick Massey, as well as former para-swimmer-turned-shooter Theresa Goh participated in a fireside chat at the appreciation event on Aug 19.
On Yip’s world championships goals, Massey said: “We’ve come out of Paris and been successful… I know PX, especially because I work with her, has had to get back into that (training) very, very quickly.
“And that in itself, brings a little bit of pressure… the goal is to be on the podium, and that’s what we’ll try and do. What colour that is… It would be a bonus if it’s gold, that’s what we go for.”
While Yip clearly enjoys competing in front of a home crowd, it will be a “different kind of pressure” to have family and friends in the stands.
“The Paralympic Games are the epitome of everything. But then this one (world championships) is to us, not the top, but then again, I race every games like it’s very, very important,” said Yip.
“And the last time I raced in Singapore, the adrenaline really carried me through. Hearing the thing about home-ground advantage and actually experiencing it are two different things. I personally didn’t understand what home-ground advantage was until 2015 (Asean Para Games), after racing for almost 10 years already, and then I raced on home ground and I felt what it was and it’s mad.
“Even though I don’t see my friends physically, just knowing that they’re there and them showing me the signs they made… makes a phenomenal difference.”
While Singapore has previously hosted events like the Asean Para Games and multiple editions of the Citi Para Swimming World Series Singapore, the world championships are set to be a first for Singapore and the region.
Goh, who won a bronze at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in the 100m breaststroke SB4, said: “The amount of support we’ve gotten from 2006 to now is incredible, then it was just me and my coach and maybe a couple of other people.
“World para events tend to not have such a high uptake compared to their able-bodied counterparts… People also come for finals, because it’s more exciting.”
The 38-year-old, who is aiming to join her good friend Yip at LA2028, added: “Hopefully, there’s more people this year than at the world series, because it is a world championships, which means more countries competing. And then hopefully, that also means more of their family and friends coming to fill up the stands.”