Before Hidilyn Diaz, the Philippines team was also-ran in the Olympics with its best showing was made by Anthony Villanueva who won a silver medal for boxing in the 1964 Olympics. It was called the 100 years of medal drought, until Diaz clinched the gold for weightlifting in the Tokyo Olympics of July 2021.
It must have been a once-in-a-lifetime moment for gymnast Carlos Yulo, 24, when he sang the National Anthem during the awarding ceremony for the vault final event in gymnastics in the 2024 Paris Olympics, for it was his second gold, the first being for floor exercises a day before.
In a social media post, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. congratulated Yulo, who became the first Filipino to win multiple gold medals in a single Olympics. The President expressed elation for Yulo’s feat.
“No words can express how proud we are of you, Caloy! You have achieved GOLD for the Philippines not once, but twice!,” Marcos said.
“Filipinos all over the world stood united, cheering and rooting for you.”
“Aming ipagmamalaki ang tagumpay mong nagniningning! Saludo kami sayo! (We will take pride in your shining victory! We salute you!),” the President added.
By law, according to Section 8 of Republic Act 10699, the government will be awarding Yulo with P10 million and an Olympic Gold Medal of Valor to be issued by the Philippine Sports Commission. House Speaker Martin Romualdez also pledged another P3 million for Carlos Yulo.
Andrew Tan’s property giant Megaworld Corp. is rewarding Yulo with a fully furnished two-bedroom residential condominium unit in Bonifacio Global City valued at P24 million.
The men’s gymnastics champion’s new condominium is located within Megaworld’s 50-hectare McKinley Hill township in Taguig.
The MVP Group of Manny Pangilinan has already spent a lot starting from Yulo was just a struggling athlete who wanted more international exposure and training in Japan. The group must have been very happy about their investments in Yulo now that he is a back-to-back gold medalist in the Olympics.
The SM Group of the Sy family, meanwhile, has pledged P1 million worth of products from SM Retail, both department stores and supermarkets, consumable within one year. Popular buffet restaurant chain Vikings pledged on its official Facebook page a lifetime free buffet to the celebrated athlete. Many more will join the award-giving spree for Yulo, because as the saying goes, everybody loves a winner.
Yulo’s victory was seen by many Filipinos, even those with little understanding what a floor exercise or a vault is, even those who have not seen a performance in the parallel bars, as a national victory as well.
From President Bongbong Marcos to the lowly janitor at the Ninoy Aquino Sports Complex, Filipinos were ecstatic that Yulo won his choice events at the Paris Olympics, momentarily forgetting the humdrum problems of everyday existence.
The media—both social media and traditional—celebrated Yulo’s overhauling Philippine sports history with a second Olympic gold in Paris on Sunday, ruling the men's gymnastics vault finals at Bercy Arena. Following his floor exercise win on Saturday, Yulo became the first Filipino male athlete to win multiple golds in the Olympics -- in a single year.
Yulo's first try set the tone for the rest of the final round as his near-perfect routine garnered him 15.433 points, the highest single-vault attempt score for the night. After tallying a 14.8 in his second vault, he finished with a total 15.116, enough to deny Great Britain a 1-2 finish.
Since success has many fathers, Carlos has some many individuals and institutions to thank for his victory, but the unassuming young athlete must thank himself first for having the ambition, self-discipline and resolve to do better next, to improve his skills and mental makeup every time he failed in the more than a decade of trying his best to improve his craft.
Early on, Carlos had a bit of luck for having a grandfather (Rodrigo Frisco) who saw the potentials of a 7-year-old acrobatically gifted boy who grew up in Leveriza, Malate, Manila which is a short estero bridge away from the Sports Complex where national and regional athletes train.
Frisco brought him for formal training at the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP), after which the boy Carlos joined local tournaments such as the Palarong Pambansa in Tacloban City in 2009.
Successive outings in Palarong Pambansa honed Carlo Yulo’s skills and earned him medals, until he dominated the Philippine National Games in 2011 with golds in the floor exercise, rings and parallel bars.
Soon, Yulo was ready to take on a bigger challenge at the international level. With coach Aldrin Castañeda guiding him, he seized gold medals in the floor exercise and parallel bars in the 2014 Asean School Games. When Carlos joined the International Junior Competition in Yokohama, Japan, in 2015, his bronze performance in the vault behind Youth Olympic medalists Giarnni Regini-Moran and Yue Ma attracted attention, earning him a scholarship from the International Gymnastics Federation.
With serious financial backing from the Philippine Sports Commission and the MVP Sports Foundation, Yulo made his move to Japan in 2016 where he was coached by Munehiro Kugimiya with approval from GAP headed by Cynthia Carrion. The Japan Olympic Association offered Yulo to train in Japan where he eventually graduated in 2022 with an associate degree in literature at Teikyo University in Itabashi, Tokyo.
We all hope that Carlos Yulo will continue being a model of discipline, courage, and hard work for the Filipino youth.
コメント