THE man they fondly call Caloy is now a golden boy at the Olympics.
Carlos Yulo finally claimed the only gold medal that evaded him in his decorated career, ruling the floor exercise of the 2024 Paris Olympics in front of an electric audience at the Bercy Arena and to the delight of a Filipino nation glued to their TV sets last Saturday.
Yulo took the gold in style, scoring 15.000, the first time he breached that mark in this Olympics after scoring 14.766 in the qualification and 14.333 in the all-around final.
Yulo’s score is also the highest by any gymnast in the floor exercise in this Olympics.
By winning the floor exercise on Saturday, Yulo becomes the second Olympic gold medalist of the Philippines, following the footsteps of weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz after she won three years ago in Tokyo.
Ironically, it was in Tokyo where Yulo debuted in the Olympics, but it was disaster of a result when he finished 44th overall in the individual all-around, and didn’t even qualify in his pet event of floor exercise.
Sweet sweet redemption for Caloy
Redemption sealed for Yulo. And he isn’t done yet.
He is set to vie for another gold medal on Sunday in his final event in Paris, giving him another shot at history as he intends to become the first-ever Filipino athlete to win in the Olympics twice.
Yulo was left in tears shortly after the sweet win that also became the Philippines’ first medal in gymnastics, doing it by scoring 6.600 in the difficulty, and 8.400 in execution.
During the medal ceremony, Yulo appeared to be still in a state of shock, shaking and holding his head upon receiving the gold medal at the podium.
Tokyo Olympic champion Artem Dolgopyat of Israel settled for a silver medal with a score of 14.966, with Jake Jarman of Great Britain, who topped the qualification and all-around final of the floor exercise, ranked third to take the bronze with a score of 14.933.
With the result, Yulo now has an Olympic gold to his resume after winning two world championships, 10 Asian championships, and nine Southeast Asian Games gold medals over the course of his career.
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