Get to know your Filipino Olympians: First of a series

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Get to know the 22 Filipino athletes bound for the 2024 Paris Olympics through this SPIN.ph series]

SMALL but terrible.

This could be one way of describing Carlos Yulo, who at 4-foot-11 has established himself as one of the most bemedalled athletes in Philippine sports history.

The 24-year-old gymnast can add a crowning glory to his growing number of hardware at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he stands as the country’s best chances at securing a gold medal.

Top of the mountain

Yulo has been on top of the mountain before, having won world championships twice – the first in 2019 in the floor exercise in Stuttgart, Germany, the second in 2021 when he ruled the vault in Kitakyushu, Japan, so it won’t be a surprise if he does it again, this time in the Olympic stage.

Fondly called ‘Caloy,’ Yulo got lured into the sport because his family lived near the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex where the training center of the national gymnastics team is located.

From there, Yulo started competing in grassroots events. After collecting multiple gold medals at the Palarong Pambansa, Yulo got his first major medal in the seniors division winning the floor exercise bronze in the 2018 World Championships.

Early in his career, Yulo was known to be a specialist in the floor exercise, but has since improved on other apparatuses such as the vault and parallel bars, giving him many opportunities to win gold.

There was nowhere to go but up from there for Yulo as he has already earned 10 gold medals in the Asian Championships and nine in the Southeast Asian Games to his name.

Hopefully, an Olympic gold will be next for Yulo.