By MARK REY MONTEJO
From the humble stage of the 2009 Palarong Pambansa in Tacloban City, Leyte to the bright lights at the 2024 Paris Olympics in France, gymnast Carlos Yulo has come a long way to become the most decorated Olympian the country has ever produced.
The 24-year-old Manila native showed how resiliency, discipline and perseverance from years of hard work paid off by winning two gold medals in the sports’ grandest stage.
What made his feat electrifying was the fact that he achieved it within 24 hours, winning the floor exercise on Saturday then coming back the following day to rule the vault apparatus in the men’s artistic gymnastics.
But the road to the pinnacle of his career didn’t come easy for Yulo, as he overcame trials and tribulations in his personal and professional life.
That includes a forgettable showing at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics three years ago, where he failed to qualify in the floor exercise final and missed the podium in vault.
Yet the 4-foot-11 diminutive dynamo didn’t rush things and instead, slowly got back into track behind the support of people who believed in him.
And look where he is now.
Looking back, Yulo was just like any other active kid. When he was young, his grandfather, Rodrigo Frisco, observed how the then seven-year-old Yulo would do cartwheels and tumbles at a local playground, prompting him to bring Carlos to the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) facility in Manila.
Yulo started competing in 2008 and joined his first Palarong Pambansa in Tacloban the following year — a multisport event for elementary and high school students across the country. Representing NCR, Yulo was part of the team that won gold, while claiming silver in floor exercise and fifth in individual all-around. Yulo stated later on that these finishes further fueled his desire to train harder.
And the rest, they say, is history. Yulo went on to win multiple medals — from the Palarong Pambansa, to the Philippine National Games and the ASEAN School Games.
Years passed and the demand to intensify his training that would be par to international standard beckons. Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya then took Yulo under his wings in 2016, while also accepting a scholarship program in Japan to further bolster his skills.
Kugimiya and Yulo made a great pair as the latter notched high honors in multiple apparatuses throughout the years, including in his pet event – vault.
From there, Kugimiya honed Yulo to become an elite athlete, making heads turn in the 2018 Doha world championships with a bronze in floor exercise before winning the historic gold in the floor exercise in the 2019 edition in Stuttgart, Germany.
His feat in Stuttgart also earned him a berth for the Tokyo Olympics — becoming the first Filipino gymnast to qualify since Ernesto Beren and Norman Henson in the 1968 Mexico edition.
After his failed medal bid in the Tokyo Games, Yulo recovered in time to win the 2021 world championship gold in vault and silver in parallel bars. He also won silver in vault and bronze in parallel bars in the 2022 Liverpool edition. In between these, he also collected multiple medals in the Asian Championships, the Southeast Asian Games and the FIG world Cup.
But their partnership didn’t last when Yulo parted ways with Kugimiya in 2023, and continued to train with his new coach Allen Aldrin Castañeda, a Cebuano native.
Castañeda, GAP chief Cynthia Carrion and her girlfriend Chloe Anjeleigh San Jose escorted Yulo in Paris, giving him morale boosters and a dose of inspiration.
And as Yulo, who armed with an even more matured mindset, rewrote the history, surpassing Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo’s golden lift in Tokyo as he will bring home two shiny gold medals — which has a small portion of the famed Eiffel Tower — from the glitzy Fashion capital of the world.
“Kailangan mo talagang aralin ‘yong sarili mo, hindi lang basta ‘yong gymnastics,” said Yulo. “Kailangan maging open ka, flexible ka sa buhay, hindi lang talaga sa sports.”
Yulo made every problem, agony and heartbreak count, so he can be ready for the better days when they come. Indeed. Great things happened for those who wait – while continuing their grind.
