Ever since Carlos Yulo’s historic gold-winning run at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Filipino gymnastics have not looked back. The Gymnastics of the Philippines (GAP) announced on Dec 21 that the country has won the bid to host the 2025 Junior World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. The competition would begin on July 12 and will go on till July 21. Even though the venues have not been finalized yet, GAP has already revealed its favorite for the competition.

No point for guessing that it’s Yulo. Wait. Are you thinking Carlos? Well, it’s not. It’s his younger brother Karl Eldrew Yulo.

While Carlos Yulo has already established himself as an undisputed legend of Filipino gymnastics, his sibling is not too far away. The younger Yulo’s performances have led GAP to pin its hopes of winning gold at the competition on him. Commenting upon Karl’s prospects in the upcoming competition, GAP president, Cynthia Carrion said, “Hopefully, Eldrew Yulo will win the gold and make the Philippines proud again.”

GAP already has its eyes set on the 2028 Los Angeles, and expects Karl to join his elder brother there. “That’s our prayers, to have both of them qualify in the next Olympics,” said Carlos Yulo’s second mother.

Karl dominated the 3rd JRC Artistic Stars Championships held in Thailand this year. He won the Individual All-Around gold and 3 golds in floor, still rings, and vault events. He also took home a silver medal for parallel bars, taking his country’s tally to 21 golds, 9 silvers, and 4 bronze medals. Filipino businessman Chavit Singson was so impressed by the younger Yulo’s performance that he announced an $8000 incentive for him. 

The Younger Yulo Takes Hong Kong by Storm

Karl’s most recent string of accolades came at the Hong Kong Artistic Gymnastics International Invitational (Chiu Wai Chung Cup).

The teen hit the ground running at Hong Kong as he won the gold in the individual all-around title and dominated the floor exercise, vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar, pommel horse, and still rings in the junior men’s division. At the end, his contribution of eight gold medals took the Filipino tally to an impressive 14 gold medals in the competition.

Happy with Karl and the rest of the Filipino team, Carrion is optimistic about being able to send a strong national team to the 34th Southeast Asian Games. The GAP president said, “Well, it’s good. It’s the beginning.” “We have other people coming in that want to be part of our team, a lot are joining now that are good you know,” she added.

Well, whoever comes and goes, it is probably safe to assume that Karl is here to stay. And who knows? Maybe he’ll even outshine his Olympian brother.