Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) president Cynthia Carrion was honored at the first KG Management Awards Ceremony in The Heritage Manila last Friday and the recognition was richly deserved. Through her tireless efforts, Carrion raised support for Caloy Yulo to train in Tokyo where he has lived since 2016 and become a two-time world gymnastics champion. She has embarked on a similar campaign to arm the next wave of Filipino gymnasts with the opening of a world-class training center in Intramuros to be the breeding grounds of future Caloy Yulos. There were others cited in the ceremony but Carrion stood out in receiving the Outstanding NSA Leader Award.
KG Management is a Japanese firm that is assisting GAP in promoting Yulo. Carrion said Jun Esturco was recently appointed head of KG’s Philippine branch. “I was really surprised to receive the award,” said Carrion. “This wasn’t for me but for the men and women who make up GAP.” The other honorees were Yulo as MVP of the Year, Munehiro Kugimiya as Coach of the Year, PLDT chairman Manny V. Pangilinan as Sports Godfather, PSC for Outstanding Government Support, Men’s Artistic Gymnastics and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics for the Team Awards and Juancho Miguel Besana, Aleah Finnegan, Charmaine Dolar, Carl Joshua Tangonan and Breanna Labadan for the Individual Medalist Award.
Gracing the event were GAP secretary-general Myrna Yao, sports psychologist Dr. Marissa Guinto and GAP vice president Derek Ramsay who sponsored the GAP Christmas Party a few days earlier. “I love all sport and I believe in my heart, Filipinos are naturally gifted to be athletic,” said the popular movie actor. “Gymnastics for me are the epitome of athletes. Caloy is built perfectly for it and his passion and dedication will get him a podium finish in the Olympics. He has all the tools and isn’t afraid of defeat.” At the World Championships in Liverpool this year, Yulo claimed the silver in vault and bronze in parallel bars. He bagged the gold in floor at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart and the gold in vault at the 2021 edition in Kitakyushu.
Carrion recounted the challenges she faced before Yulo broke through on the global stage. “No one wanted to support gymnastics financially as they thought we will not win medals,” she said. “In the beginning, with the help of Good Works Foundation, we were able to pay for Caloy’s coaching fees for several years as we believed in his potential. I visited Ricky Vargas in his office and he listened to my pleadings as I showed him videos of Caloy and he said the MVP Sports Foundation would help. His words were like gold. I brought Caloy to another dear friend Al Panlilio to sign contracts with MVPSF. MVP, Ricky and Al are the real heroes of gymnastics who got us to jump-start properly.”
Carrion said GAP wouldn’t also have been able to over-achieve without the backing of International Gymnastics Federation president Morinari Watanabe, Japanese Gymnastics Association, PSC, POC, Sen. Pia Cayetano, GAP board members and GAP deputy secretary-general Rowena Bautista. “I always tell Caloy that we are a team with coach Mune, (physiotherapist) Jumpei (Konno), Dr. Guinto and me but never to forget God is the leader of our team,” she said.