By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Finally, Carlos Yulo has done it.
Four years after a forgettable campaign during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when he failed to clinch a single podium finish in the men’s artistic gymnastics event, the Filipino superstar used all those lessons to redeem himself and bring home the second-ever Olympic gold medal for the Philippines when he ruled the floor exercise event in this year’s Paris Olympics Global games on August 3, 2024.
Entering his pet event with sheer determination and hunger to win, Yulo pulled off a flawless routine to top the scoresheet, capping off his impressive campaign with a title-clinching tally of 15.000.
The 24-year-old Filipino gymnast had a strong start in his routine, completing all his set moves while securing successive perfect landings that drew loud cheers from the crowd.
After an end-to-end double dive in the remaining 30 seconds of his routine time, Yulo put the cherry on top after ending his run with a jaw-dropping three-and-a-half twist dismount capped off with a perfectly balanced landing.
Seconds after completing the twisting dismount, the Filipino bet shouted in joy and raised both of his arms in contentment with the degree of difficulty he had to put to impress the set of judges.
With the way Yulo maximized the floor and showcased his strengths, the judges gave him this edition’s gold medal and edged Artem Dolgopyat of Israel and Great Britain’s Jake Jarman.
It was a tightly contested head-to-head battle between Yulo and Dolgopyat as the representative from Israel garnered a total score of 14.966, 0.034 short of equalizing the Filipino’s score for the gold.
However, Yulo edged Dolgopyat in the difficulty department of the scoring sheet with a score of 6.600 compared to the Israeli’s 6.400.
With the historic win, Yulo now joined the legendary weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz as the only athletes from the Philippines to ever win an Olympic gold medal.
Mabuhay ka, Carlos!
