Para-swimmer Yip Pin Xiu focuses on 'staying in her lane'

When Yip Pin Xiu was 15 and a rising talent in the swimming pool, she was taught a key lesson by a sports psychologist that has stayed with her throughout her career.

- Deepanraj Ganesan

She was then competing in a race in Germany and "very excitedly snatched" the printed start list for her event as she was eager to see who she was up against.

In an interview with The Straits Times, Yip said the sports psychologist, Dr Andrea Furst, "gently took this piece of paper away from me".

Dr Furst told her that "it doesn't matter how fast your competitors swim because at the end of the day, you are going to swim your own race, in your own lane, focus on your own times, and only you can control your own times".

That career-defining lesson became the cornerstone of her journey, guiding the 32-year-old as she rose to become one of the Republic's biggest sporting stars.

Yip said: "This was really one of the biggest lessons I've had, to stay in my lane and not worry about the things that I cannot control. Even my disability - knowing that it's not something I can control, but how to make the best out of it."

The swimmer has certainly made the most of herself, despite being diagnosed at two years old with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which causes the muscles to progressively weaken.