AS Paris and the rest of the world savoured one of the most memorable Summer Olympics ever, the Philippines had something extra to celebrate.
Thanks to an unprecedented two-gold medal haul by gymnast Carlos Yulo, the Philippines ended the 2024 Games in 37th place - its highest ever ranking since it started competing in the quadrennial showcase 100 years ago.
The 22-man delegation, which also got a pair of bronze medals from boxers Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio, surpassed its previous best of 50th place which it achieved three years ago in Tokyo behind Hidilyn Diaz's historic gold medal.
The United States emerged as the overall champion by nipping China on medal total after both ended up with 40 gold medals after a fortnight in the City of Lights that concluded with a dazzling closing ceremony at Stade de France.
By finishing in a tie with Hong Kong, Team Philippines ended up as the No. 7 team in Asia behind China, Japan (20 gold medals at 4th overall), South Korea (7th with 13), Uzbekistan (8th) at No. 13, Iran (3) at No. 22 and Chinese Taipei (2 gold medals with 5 bronzes) at No. 33.
Kazakhstan, an Asian Games powerhouse, surprisingly only had one gold medal to show from judo.
The Philippines’ 2-0-2 gold-silver-bronze mark in Paris was slightly better than Indonesia, which was tied with Algeria at 39th with two gold medals from weightlifting and sport climbing, and bronze in badminton.
Thailand ended up in a tie for 44th in the tally but collected the most medals among Southeast Asia teams with six after its 1-3-2 gold-silver-bronze tally thanks to its weightlifting team, which got two silvers and one bronzes.
It also got the gold medal from taekwondo, a silver in badminton, and bronze in boxing.
Malaysia finished in joint 80th at 0-0-2 with badminton as the source of its bronze medals, while Singapore was at 84th on a 0-0-1 count after a bronze in sailing.
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