PARIS – Three years after his Tokyo slip, gymnast Carlos Yulo emerged as an Olympic golden boy, coming through with the performance of his life and delivering a triumph for the ages in the floor exercise final at the Bercy Arena here Saturday.
And Yulo, a two-gold winner in the World Championships, is now also an Olympic gold medalist — the second for the Philippines after the breakthrough feat by weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz in the last edition in 2021 in the Japanese capital.
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With perfect somersaults to finish his routine, Yulo clenched his right fist and punched the air, already celebrating, confident he’s got a winning show.
Third in the order of performers in the program, 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). And he stayed there on top after all eight finalists were done, the last flash of the scores sparking a rush of emotion for the Filipino champ.
Tears were rolling down his face as his rivals were all over him shortly before the awarding ceremony.
For the second straight Olympics, the Philippine national anthem was played in the greatest sporting show on earth.
Yulo ruled his pet event, with a chance to become an Olympic double-gold winner as he’s also vying in the vault final Sunday.
It would have been a brighter golden Saturday for Team Philippines if not for the sorry split decision loss by 57kg boxer Carlo Paalam to an Australian foe over at the Paris North Arena.
Adding to the joy was EJ Obiena overcoming a faulty start and thundering to the pole vault final at the Stade de France.
The biggest cheers belonged to Yulo, the newest member of a short list of Filipino Olympic medalists, joining fellow gold winner Diaz (also with a silver), silver winners Anthony Villanueva, Onyok Velasco, Nesthy Petecio and Paalam, and bronze holders Teofilo Yldefonso, Simeon Toribio, Jose Villanueva, Miguel White, Leopoldo Serantes, Roel Velasco and Eumir Marcial.
With Yulo’s feat, the Olympic medal streak of the country continued from Diaz’ silver feat in 2016 in Rio to the 1-2-1 gold-silver-bronze breakthrough in 2021 in Tokyo and to these Games where Team Philippines is in a good position to even strike harder, punch stronger and soar higher.
Early Sunday, Aira Villegas will seek a spot in the women’s 50kg semifinals for a sure bronze.
Paalam missed the same in a 2-3 loss to Australian Charlie Senior. The Bukidnon bet would have made history as the first Filipino boxer to collect two Olympic medals if not for the shock fall. With two bronzes was swimmer Yldefonso.
Yulo, however, quickly soothed the pain and heartaches felt by the Nationals’ on Paalam’s loss.
A pocket number of Filipinos inside the grand Paris arena by the River Seine and millions watching on television back in the country celebrated with Yulo as he took his place among the best — a spot in the pantheon of Filipino sporting greats.
Beating other finalists Jake Jarman of Great Britain, Illia Kovtun of Ukraine, Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan, Luke Whitehouse also of Great Britain, and Zhang Boheng of China, Yulo’s name will now live in the hearts of Filipinos and in Philippine sports lore for a long, long time.
Dolgopyat took the silver while Jarman, a Filipino-British, snared the bronze.