Now, what 21-year-old Joseph Schooling achieved for Singapore on Saturday morning our time is not anything we should belittle in any way — and we aren't; he did achieve a historic-first Olympic Gold and record in the men's 100m Butterfly event.

But while celebrating his victory alongside the rest of the nation — and indeed, the rest of the world, which witnessed the shock upset of the likes of the legendary Michael Phelps, László Cseh and Chad Le Clos — we might have forgotten that this isn't the first time an amazing feat like this happened.

Before Schooling's debut at the London Olympics in 2012, back in 2008, there was a Singaporean who attained a gold medal at the highest level of sporting competition in Beijing.

No, not at the Olympic table-tennis event — we know Feng Tianwei, Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu, all three of whom are impressive athletes in their own right, clinched us a silver in the team event.

(By the way, this year's team of Feng, Yu Mengyu and Zhou Yihan are through to the semis, so even if they lose to China, whom they will face on 8am Tuesday, Singapore time, they could still win us a bronze against the losing country in the other semifinal match. But we digress.)

No — that Singaporean is 24-year-old Yip Pin Xiu, who eight years ago, swam an impressive 58.75-second race in the S3 category to set a world record in the women's 50m backstroke event in the Paralympics:

And by the way, also in Beijing in 2008, she clinched Singapore a silver medal in the women's 50m freestyle event, but prior to that set a world record of 57.04 seconds in the heats.

Just to put these two facts in context — Yip was sixteen at the time of her world-record-breaking victory.

Singapore recognised how amazing her feat was, too: she was awarded the Pingat Jasa Gemilang (Meritorious Service Medal) that very same year. Other athletes who received this prestigious accolade include Joscelin Yeo and Tan Howe Liang, our first Olympic medallist (silver, for weightlifting in 1960).

Her category of swimmers at the time — S3 — is explained on page 31 of this Paralympic guide to categorisation (it's complicated and differs from sport to sport for good reason) as:

This sport class includes athletes with amputations of both arms and legs. Swimmers with reasonable arm strokes but no use of their legs or trunk and swimmers with severe coordination problems in all limbs are also included in this sport class.

She was reclassified to S3 from S5 as a swimmer after losing her ability to kick — that's right, she competes in international swimming meets without using what able swimmers typically rely on for their speed.

And now, she's in S2:

Swimmers in this sport class mainly rely on their arms for swimming. Their hand, trunk and leg function is limited due to tetraplegia or co-ordination problems, for example.

Why? Yip was born with muscular dystrophy — which degenerates her muscles over time — as well as a nerve condition which impairs her eyesight.

And she started swimming at age five (sound familiar? Schooling started swimming competitively at age five.) — Unlike Schooling, however, Yip did so in order to improve her health and strengthen her muscles, but despite her best efforts, she could no longer walk by the time she was 11 years old.

As the years pass, Yip fights her continuously-degenerating muscles while continuing to represent Singapore on an international stage (are you wondering what you're doing with your life yet? Cause we are).

Up for Rio Games

Nonetheless, she continues swimming, and over the years got better and better at it — no less than former Olympic swimmer Ang Peng Siong coaches her now, and she's up for the September Rio Games alongside Theresa Goh and 10 other athletes who have made it there (Goh and another athlete, Muhammad bin Nordin, are competing in two different events each).

She may have missed out on medals at the London Games in 2012, but Yip's raring to go, having just three months ago broken two world records in the 50m and 100m backstroke events at the International Paralympic Committee European Open Championships in Portugal.

Watch her go in the 100m backstroke, from the 2-minute mark:

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So remember, folks — the Rio Paralympic Games are on from September 7 to 18. We've got athletic champions competing in swimming, athletics and power-lifting whom we should all be super-duper proud of for making it there too.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article inaccurately said Yip was the first Singaporean to attain an Olympic-level Gold medal. The text has been updated to reflect the difference between the Olympics (for able-bodied people) and the Paralympics (for people with disabilities), both the highest level of competition for each.]

Top photo by LIU JIN/AFP/Getty Images

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