EDITORIAL - Setting the bar high

For the longest time the Philippines had a drought of Olympic gold medals.

This drought ended in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics when powerlifter Hidilyn Diaz won our first-ever gold medal. It was Philippine history in the making considering how elusive the gold has been since the Philippines first joined the Olympic Games exactly a hundred years ago.

This set expectations high for the following Olympics games, the one happening now. “We cannot go back to having no gold medal in the Olympics!” became a rallying cry.

And our athletes, or at least one of them, didn’t disappoint, winning two gold medals back to back as our first medals in this Olympics. The man of the hour --or perhaps we should say Golden Boy of the hour-- is gymnast Carlos Yulo, who dominated his Men’s Floor and Men’s Vault events of Artistic Gymnastics.

Suddenly, all Filipinos are huge fans of Artistic Gymnastics. Suddenly, everyone knows or remembers who Carlos Yulo is. Suddenly all the backstories of Yulo are coming to the fore; all his suffering, all his drama, and all his sacrifices. Victory has many fathers after all.

Of course we will not take away anything from Yulo. While he may not have been the first to win a gold medal, as of now he has won more gold medals for us than anyone else. For now his record is hard to beat by any Filipino, and while his sport isn’t the pole vault he has set the bar pretty high.

Our congratulations to our first two-time Olympic gold medal winner. Let his story be an inspiration to other Filipinos that sacrifice and hard work pay off. Let his achievement be a milestone in Philippine history as important as the first time we won a gold medal.

As of this writing we still have at least three more chances at winning a gold medal with three other athletes doing well in their competitions. We wish them all the best.