Carlos Yulo's journey to Olympic Gold
Carlos Yulo has made history as the first male Filipino to bag a gold medal at the Olympics.
He also became the first-ever Filipino two-time Olympic gold medalist, making history and bringing honor to the Philippines.
Carlos' rise to the top has been a heartwarming journey, starting his training for gymnastics when he was just seven years old when his grandfather Rodrigo Frisco saw his potential after he tried doing cartwheels and tumbles at a local playground.
Rodrigo brought Carlos to the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) facility in Manila, and eventually began competing.
He joined the 2009 Palarong Pambansa in Tacloban representing NCR, with his team emerging with gold.
This kickstarted his career as he continued winning medals and training in Japan.
Take a look at Carlos Yulo's journey to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Palarong Pambansa
His team won the 2009 Palarong Pambansa in Tacloban, and this established his career in competitive gymnastics.
Gymnastics career
Carlos trained for the Philippine National Games as part of the National Capital Region's gymnastics team.
Through this, he attended Adamson University in Ermita.
Training
In 2016, Carlos accepted an offer from the Japan Olympic Association to train in Japan under a scholarship program.
Japan
Carlos moved to Japan and continued his education at Teikyo University in Tokyo, graduating in 2022 with an associates degree in Literature.
International competition
He made his international debut at the Melbourne World Cup in 2018 and also scored high in the 2018 Asian Games.
2020 Tokyo Olympics
He joined the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, representing the Philippines, and placed tenth in the all-around final.
2022
At the 2022 Southeast Asian Games, he led the Philippine team to a silver medal victory while winning gold for the floor exercise, still rings, vault, horizontal bar.
2023
In 2023, he joined the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series and won gold on the floor exercise, silver on the parallel bars, and bronze on the vault
He also competed at the Asian Championships and won a silver medal in the all-around behind Japan's Shinnosuke Oka.
2024 Paris Olympics
On August 3, 2024 Carlos made history as he competed in the men's floor exercise final and placed first with a score of 15.000 points.
He became the first Filipino man and first Filipino gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal.The next day, Carlos won his second gold at the Games in the vault, scoring an almost perfect 15.116 points and becoming the Philippines' first-ever multiple-time Olympic champion. He is the second Filipino ever to win an Olympic gold medal, after Hidilyn Diaz's victory in the women's 55 kg weightlifting event in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
