>PARALYMPIC athletes Yip Pin Xiu and Laurentia Tan have done Singapore immensely proud at the ongoing Paralympic Games.
Tan, 29, snared two bronzes in the equestrian events held in Hong Kong, while Yip powered to a silver in the 50m freestyle (S3) final in Beijing last Saturday. The 16-year-old swimmer even broke the event's world and Paralympic world records during the heats.
my paper lists five facts about each of these two inspirational disabled athletes, who triumphed against the odds.
YIP PIN XIU
- Born with muscle dystrophy, a disease which causes her muscles to degenerate slowly.
- She is a Secondary 4 student at Bendemeer Secondary School.
- Swims backstroke in the 50m freestyle (S3) event. Most competitors use the front-crawl.
- Despite her fist-like hands and weak wrists, she compensates with super-fast strokes. While able-bodied backstrokers swim with their nose and mouth above water most of the time, her head is tilted back and submerged, so that her hips can rise higher, reducing the drag created by her limp legs.
- To start the backstroke race, she is dangled by her arms, which are held by her coach, Ang Peng Siong. To turn, she swivels 180 degrees on her back.
LAURENTIA TAN
- Based in Surrey, England. Suffers from cerebral palsy and profound deafness.
- Took up horse-riding when she was eight years old, and competed in the individual test and freestyle test (Grade 1a) events last week.
- Became the first Asian to win a Paralympic equestrian medal last Tuesday when she came in third in the individual test.
- Has an honours degree in hospitality management and tourism, and worked as a mental-health worker until June, when she quit to train full-time for the Paralympics.
- Lost to the same two British equestrian competitors, Sophie Christiansen and Anne Dunham, in both events.
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