Snagging two Olympic golds in back-to-back days is not a matter of joke. Especially, the task can be extremely difficult if the athlete enters the yard after a shaky performance in the previous outings. On August 3, gymnast Carlos Yulo entered the Bercy Arena with the same baggage. Last year at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, he was on the verge of missing the Paris Olympics. His vault routine complicated his chance to make a comeback. But the Filipino gymnast got a stroke of luck at the next event. 

The 24-year-old made a spectacular comeback. Thankfully, it was the floor exercise that had often been touted as Yulo’s strong routine. Finally, with a score of 14.500, he stood at the 4th position on the leaderboard booking his spot for Paris. Cynthia Carrion-Norton, the president of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines, must have taken note of the entire saga. After all, she was the one who had been running door-to-door on behalf of Yulo to find sponsors, which is why the gymnast calls him his second mother. But Cynthia was not alone who was keeping an eye on him.

In Paris, Yulo first claimed the gold medal on the men’s floor exercise. The following day, he returned for the event that had put a question mark on his entry to the Paris Olympics—the vault. However, this time as well, the gymnast stood victorious with a score of 15.116. And Dyan Castillejo, a Filipino sports analyst and a former tennis star, could not have been happier.

In a conversation with Tatler Asia, Castillejo remarked, “I’m so happy for him because I’ve always known he could win, and you can hear from the International Gymnastics Committee that Carlos is super talented and gifted as a gymnast.” She also revealed how Yulo was like during the Tokyo Olympics. 

Tokyo was Yulo’s first shot at the Olympics. He earned his quota only in the vault event and finished in fourth rank in the final. The experience of competing in the Japanese capital was a learning experience for Yulo. Yet the failure in such a venue made him weep along the fence line. Castillejo noticed that as well, from the gallery. 

While recalling the moment, she said, “I was there beside Cynthia when he lost in the Tokyo Games. He was so down then, so this time, seeing him turn it around and stick the landings, was such a triumphant feeling.” However, Castillejo did not break into the scene only for the Olympics. She has been there for long.

“I’ve been doing stories on Carlos since he was a child—maybe seven or eight years old, ever since Palarong Pambansa,” she said, referring to the annual national student sports competition. “I’ve seen his growth as a gymnast, and I’ve also seen his victories and disappointments because sports life comes with many defeats. I’ve seen him down and then be up, and how he had to just power through and stay on mentally and emotionally,” she further added.

In recent times, Carlos Yulo has said many things about his biological mom, Angelica. He blamed her for withdrawing money from one of his accounts without his notice. As a result, the relationship between them has come to the receiving end. However, in this troubling time, Cynthia Carrion-Norton has stood beside him. The president of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines has always supported Yulo. And he did not miss her role.

In one of his interactions, the two-time world champion laid out, “Ma’am, Cynthia was the first one who believed in me. She didn’t leave me through my ups and downs; she was the one who stood by me and introduced me to many people so I could get sponsorships. If it weren’t for her, there would be no Carlos Yulo to win at the Olympics… And I am, of course, thankful to God that He introduced me to ma’am Cynthia.” In recent times as well, Cynthia has taken a major role, highlighting Yulo as the perfect bridge between the gymnastics associations of the Philippines and Japan. Notably, both Cynthia and Castillejo are confident about one thing.

That is Yulo’s chances in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. “For Carlos, I can foresee that because he’s already achieved his dream, I think he’ll win more medals because he’s in a more relaxed position now; he’s not in a pressured position. If he can continue after this whole euphoria dies down a bit—if it ever dies down—then he can get back to the grind. With this kind of confidence, high-level training and less pressure, I think he can defend his gold on the floor and in the vault and maybe do even better in the parallel bars. He also said that he will try to win the all-around.,” Castillejo said. Yulo himself also aims for that.

Undeterred by fame, Carlos Yulo aims for one more shot at glory 

In Paris, Yulo got to meet the Philippines’ first Olympic champion, Hidlyn Diaz, who won weightlifting gold three years ago at Tokyo 2020. “She said, ‘Good luck!'” he said with a laugh. “To stay strong, not to worry, just to keep focusing on myself. The advice I got from her, I’ll keep that in my mind.” After his win, social media burst with news about what Yulo would be receiving as a gift from the Philippines’ authorities for his win. from houses to free flights and whatnot! But Yulo had his mind somewhere else.

“I don’t know much yet. I heard I’ll be getting a lot of prizes, but maybe I’m more focused on the next cycle of the Olympics. It will be a greater experience for me because I want to defend that title that I won [here] in the next cycle and show everyone that I’m worth of a gold medal in all my performances in my competitions,” he had said about all that.

Such a calm demeanor is probably the outcome of the ups and downs he has seen over the years since his debut Olympics in Tokyo. He won four medals across the 2021 and 2022 worlds, but he left the 2023 World Championships empty-handed. If these were not enough, in a major shake-up, he parted ways with his longtime Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya. That made him travel from one corner of the world to another in search of that perfect training base.

From the Philippines to a stint in the Republic of Korea to Lilleshall, England alongside Team GB’s Jake Jarman, the journey has been a “rollercoaster”, as Yulo describes that. But at the same time. he pointed out, “Those times made me stronger. I was able to meet the people that I needed to meet. [Those times] taught me values not only in gymnastics but also in my person life.” He started gathering knowledge from fellow competitors.

“I want to acquire knowledge from other athletes, like ask them, ‘How to do these skills?’ and ask coaches, ‘How do I do this? Do you have any methods or strategies you can give me?’,” Yulo said of that phase. That approach definitely paid him well and Yulo acknowledges all those who helped him as a part of this success. Indeed, he is a self-made prodigy and that keeps him grounded.

“I prefer a quiet life, honestly,” Yulo says of himself. That might be far-fetched for him right now. But amid all the chatter, he has his vision set: one more Olympics and one more triumph. For Yulo, the countdown has already started.