Roaring 2024

MANILA, Philippines — The Year of the Dragon, in Chinese beliefs, symbolizes honor, power, luck and success. For Philippine sports, 2024 meant all of the above.

Carlos Yulo, a young gymnast who barely stands five feet, had the entire nation twisting and turning in joy as he won two gold medals in the Paris Olympics.

It was pure imagination, to millions and millions of Filipinos, to ever see an individual athlete, male or female, with two Olympic gold medals hanging from the neck.

But Yulo believed then achieved, and the Philippines, which waited a hundred years to witness its first Olympic gold courtesy of weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz in Tokyo in 2021, can only long for more.

Yulo’s extraordinary feat during the summer days in Paris was surrounded by other wondrous achievements from the resilient Filipino athletes, from boxers Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas, who bagged bronze medals in the Olympics, to the tireless Gilas squad that shone on the international stage, pro boxers Melvin Jerusalem and Pedro Taduran, who stood as world champions, cue artists Rubilen Amit and Carlo Biado, who raised their sticks in victory, and 17-year-old golfer Rhianne Malixi, who made heads turn while competing in the United States.

On home soil, winners were hailed, toasted as well, from Meralco, TNT and June Mar Fajardo in the PBA, to the UP Maroons and the Mapua Cardinals in the UAAP and NCAA. The Creamline Cool Smashers were a beautiful sight winning yet another title in the PVL. And the list goes on.

Here are their stories:

1. Hail King CaRLOS!

Easily the greatest achiever of them all was Yulo for coming through with spellbinding performances in a weekend of Olympic gymnastics medal play to claim the floor exercise and vault championships.

“It’s just so overwhelming,” said Yulo after hearing the national anthem played at the Bercy Arena not just once but twice, three years after his Tokyo slip.

Before Yulo, there’s no other Philippine bet who had won a gymnastics medal and no other Philippine male athlete in any sport who had nailed an Olympic gold.

He put a new leaf on the Philippine sports annals by topping the floor exercise a week into the Games then ruling the vault the following day in a landmark performance that is now the new high benchmark to chase for the next Filipino Olympians.

Third in the order of performers in the floor exercise final, the 24-year-old Manila pride, with a score of 15.000, bettered those of Spain’s Rayderley Zapata (14.333) and Israeli titleholder Artem Dolgopyat (14.966). After all eight finalists were done, the last flash of the scores showed Yulo still on top, sparking a rush of emotion for the Filipino champ.

After 24 hours, he’s back in action and sustained his golden performance, vaulting to greater glory.

Yulo traversed the runway with confidence and purpose, took the table with great control, and sprang with agility towards clean, controlled landing in a pair of dynamic vaults that sent him to even greater immortality.

And thanks to Yulo’s medal blitzkrieg, Team Philippines has surpassed the country’s previous best of 1-2-1 medal haul in the 2021 Games, heralding the further rise of the Philippines a century after its first participation in the quadrennial games in the same lovely city in 1924.

2. Bronzes From Lady Pugs

Team Philippines posted its strongest finish in decades in the Olympic medal race – thanks also to the two bronzes by female pugs Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas.

Petecio etched her name in history as the first boxer to win two Olympic medals – silver in Tokyo and bronze in Paris – while Villegas made a Cinderella ride with a bronze-medal achievement on her Olympic debut.

And with the 2-0-2 harvest of the Yulo-Petecio-Villegas trio, the Philippines emerged as the best performer from Southeast Asia, No. 7 in Asia behind China, Japan, Korea, Uzbekistan, Iran and Chinese Taipei and No. 37 in the world.

Villegas assured herself of a podium finish with a great escape versus a home bet by the lady fighter from Tacloban.

Her fate in the air after two rounds of a slam bang clash, Villegas decided she won’t let her chances go away, fighting on and eventually winning one of the fiercest fights at the North Paris Arena.

Villegas took the 3-2 split decision versus France’s Wassila Lkhadiri in their 50kg quarterfinals bout, putting a lock on a multi-medal show by Team Philippines in the Paris Games.

But her journey ended in her semis bout.

Villegas’ run as a neophyte Olympian came to an end at the hands of bemedaled Turkish fighter Buse Naz Cakiroglu, a former world champion and the Tokyo Games silver winner who dazzled her way to a unanimous 5-0 victory before a packed crowd at Court Philippe Chatrier inside Roland Garros.

The next day, Petecio’s Paris odyssey ended in a tough call in the 57kg semifinals.

“Sobrang labo, sobrang labo talaga,” rued Petecio, not convinced she lost the fight to young Polish foe Julia Szeremeta.

“Wala siyang clear punch sa third round, yung body shots ko, hook ko pumapasok, hindi ko alam kung ano ang nangyari,” the Davaoeña pug also said.

The judges saw otherwise, giving the bout to Szeremeta at 4-1.

Nonetheless, Petecio and Villegas kept Philippine boxing’s winning tradition going, increasing their medal harvest following earlier feats by Jose Villanueva, Anthony Villanueva, Leopoldo Serantes, Roel Velasco, Onyok Velasco, Carlo Paalam and Eumir Marcial.

3. No Stopping Gilas

Gilas Pilipinas, under coach Tim Cone and featuring a handpicked core of 12 players with three alternates, hit the ground running in 2024.

As they took the first step on the long journey to the 2028 Olympics in LA, the Nationals produced glittering achievements in their initial forays – the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in July and the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers in February and November.

Cone and Co. showed the program’s vast potential at the world stage when they toppled world No. 6 Latvia in their own turf in the OQT in Riga, 89-80.

The massive reversal ended 64 years of futility against European teams for basketball-crazy Philippines, which last tasted the same in the 1960 Olympics at the expense of Spain, 82-80.

They  lost a close one to No. 24 Georgia after this, 94-96, but the Nationals still reached the crossover semis against Brazil. The experienced Brazilians, though, pulled the plug on the Filipinos’ Paris bid, 60-71.

The Justin Brownlee-led Gilas went on a rampage in the first two windows of the Asia Cup Qualifiers, clobbering Hong Kong twice, 94-64 and 93-54, while beating Chinese-Taipei, 106-53, and New Zealand, 93-89, at home for early qualification.

The takedown of the world No. 22 Kiwis in Window 2 marked the Filipinos’ first in FIBA play against the power from Oceania after losing the first four meetings by blowouts.

“Our country is so passionate about basketball. Pretty much everybody knows that by now. For us to be successful on the world stage really means a lot. This is a big huge step for us,” said Cone.                (To be continued)