But noting their perseverance and budding skills, the then manager of the complex’s Gymnastics Association approached Yulo and his friends and offered them the opportunity to train at the facility for free—and without having to sneak in—marking the beginning of their formal gymnastics training.

Little did the Olympian know that this first exposure to gymnastics would lead him to find his new life goal: to represent the Philippines in the sport.

“When I first saw what gymnastics was like, it was like paradise to me. I saw so many gymnasts practising. I remember telling myself that I wanted to be like them someday; I wanted to be a gymnast, too,” Yulo recalls.

Watching the 2012 London Olympics on television solidified his desire to go further with the sport. After seeing Japanese gymnast Kōhei Uchimura in action, Yulo realised he wanted to compete professionally and represent the nation. “He inspired me the most, and I said, ‘I want to participate in the Olympics and win a medal like him’. It was then that I started to get serious about the sport—and also when I started to dream,” he says.

Yulo’s first attempt at Olympic success was at the Tokyo 2020 Games. He only qualified for the vault event—and eventually came fourth—but it had given him a taste of the standards expected at the event. But there were still challenges ahead. He started the Paris Olympics qualification season confidently, but when it came to the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Belgium, one of the main qualifying events, his performance fell short. “I cried a lot because my performance in Belgium was not good—that competition would make or break my qualifications for the Olympics,” he says. “I remember my whole team crying … We thought I would not be able to enter the Olympics.”

It was a challenging first day for Yulo at the World Championships, especially in the vault category. But he was able to turn things around in his strongest event, the floor exercise, where he finished in third place with 14.600 points, securing a spot in Paris. “When I found out that I was still qualified, I cried, and I thanked the Lord so much that, somehow, I’d still be able to compete at the Olympics.”

Read more: How these Asian athletes clinched gold medals at the Olympics

Having qualified, Yulo started training in earnest. His team re-examined each apparatus: floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. From there, they laid out the routines Yulo could do for each. He also attended several international training camps, where he would get to know his fellow Olympians, and gather and share knowledge. To Yulo, it was the perfect place to discover new techniques and tips.

“We did trial and error, going to different countries and getting as much information as possible. When we got home to the Philippines, we chose what would work or what wouldn’t, so [that] was a big help,” the athlete explains. “In my [future] training, that’s also what I’m going to look for: going to different countries and meeting fellow gymnasts, because there are so many realisations, techniques, knowledge and strategies that I can learn from them.”

Yulo gave an overview of a typical day drawing closer to the Paris Olympics. He shared that each gymnast was distributed into groups, each of which could only train for four hours daily. For example, one hour can be used in afternoon training, while three hours can be used in the morning. Yulo and his team maximised the time given by spending three hours in the morning on skill training and an hour in the afternoon on any apparatus he couldn’t do in
the morning. 

His skill practice is heavy on repetition. After all, repetition is the best way to develop the basics and gain muscle memory to do high-level skill apparatus. He explains, “I usually do many repetitions of routines with which I have the most difficulty. We set a limit on the number of mistakes that I can make. I have five tries on floor exercise training; I aim to stand three or four times. If I get off the goal, I must repeat everything from the top.”

In case you missed it: What does Carlos Yulo get for winning two gold medals at the Olympics?

When it comes to his vault training, whether or not he can stick to his landing, he has to practise it repeatedly. It’s the only way for Yulo to master the routine. As for the other apparatuses he finds easier to do than the others, Yulo cleans his minimal errors and deductions pointed out by judges from previous competitions.

An athlete’s life is one of sacrifice and compromise. Training involves endless repetition to build muscle memory and eliminate errors; nutrition is monitored and, if not restricted, precisely defined—Yulo stressed the importance of rice in his diet, ensuring he eats it at every meal, in stark contrast to the carb-free, protein-only approach of some sportspeople.

On August 3, finally in Paris, a nervous Yulo awaited his turn at the floor exercise event. But the tension melted away as he started his routine—with a series of near-flawless moves, Yulo made history as the first male Filipino athlete to bring home an Olympic gold medal. With a final score of 15.000 points, Yulo topped the podium, with Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat in second place and Great Britain’s Jake Jarman taking the bronze. 

The energy of his astounding performance and emotional win travelled from France all the way home to the Philippines. With the Filipinos cheering him on in Paris and on television screens worldwide, Yulo felt all the love and could not be more grateful to God and his team for being there with him through his journey. He had achieved his dream.

“That moment was very emotional for me. I remembered all my sacrifices and hardships—not only in training, because this sport is not all there is in my life, even in my personal life, there are many struggles. A lot of people put me down, a lot of people didn’t believe in me,” Yulo tells Tatler. “But I still kept going. I’m so happy that people in my circle still believed in me, stayed, and supported me until the end.

“It’s been a long journey from dreaming to winning,” he continues. “I am thrilled and blessed. I am mostly grateful to the Lord: It’s Him. He did not abandon me. I’m also grateful that nothing bad happened to us, the gymnasts. We were all safe from injury. Overall, it was pure happiness. It was worth it that I didn’t give up.”

But Yulo wasn’t done yet: he won his second gold medal the following day at the vault event, topping the scoreboard  with 15.116 points. Armenia’s Artur Davtyan was in second place, while Great Britain’s Harry Hepworth came third.

Of that second win, Yulo says, “I was thinking about being safe because I couldn’t even do my first vault. Even during training, I wasn’t able to stand up at all. Wala akong naitayo. In my previous days in Paris, I couldn’t land either. I remember being nervous because it was dangerous, which worried me the most,” the gymnast admits. “I just wanted to be safe and be able to perform until the end because I had nothing more to lose. That’s all I was praying for: to stand, even just once.”  So the result came as something of a surprise. “I was very relaxed on the second day because getting a medal on the first day helped a little. So, when I did my routine for the vault event, all I felt was joy. I couldn’t believe what was happening. The second medal is a bonus. If the first is unbelievable, the second is even more unbelievable.”

Read more: Homecoming of Team Philippines: Carlos Yulo, Nesthy Petecio, Aira Villegas, and more

With his second win, Yulo of course remembered to thank God. But this time, he also remembered to thank the people who had been by his side through the highs and lows of his career to date. These included the president of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines, Cynthia Carrion-Norton, who was one of his earliest supporters.

Yulo sees Carrion-Norton as his second mother. Her support and dedication to Yulo’s gymnastics career since he was seven has been pivotal in his recent Olympic wins. As president of GAP, she persistently looked for sponsors for Yulo and actively guided him before, during and after his training in Japan under head coach Munehiro Kugimiya. She was also there when the athlete returned to the Philippines and started training under Filipino coach Aldrin Castañeda, who trained him for the Paris Olympics.

“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. She also sent me to Japan, cared for me and treated me like her son, not just an athlete. I am very grateful to her for also never giving up and always believing I could achieve this. 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.”

Another early advocate was Dyan Castillejo, one of the country’s renowned sports broadcasters. She witnessed both of Yulo’s Paris victories. “I’ve been doing stories on Carlos since he was a child—maybe seven or eight years old, ever since Palarong Pambansa,” she says, 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. 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. 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.” 

Both mentors feel confident about Yulo’s future performance, including at the next Olympic Games, in 2028 in Los Angeles.

Castillejo adds: “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.”

Yulo’s wins at the Paris Olympics are just the beginning. With his mind set on winning the all-around gymnastics title in Los Angeles while defending his existing titles, the Filipino gymnast remains pragmatic. “Even with my goals already set, I’m not afraid of making mistakes, of losing. That’s part of being an athlete,” he says. “While you’re in sports, many unexpected things can happen, no matter how good you are, how ready you are or how much preparation you’ve done; we can’t really be sure if we will win. For me, before and when my career ends, I want to have no regrets.”

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