Carlos Yulo accrued 15.116 points in two vaults and won his second gold in Paris. —YULO PHOTOS BY AFP
There is little question that 2024 has been the biggest year in the history of Philippine sports, as Carlos Yulo underscored by winning two gold medals in a single Summer Olympics.
There can be little question that in these Paris Games, the Philippines was also the biggest laughing stock because of one regrettable, easily avoidable snafu that resulted in female golfers from throughout the country standing out for all the flawed reasons.
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Yulo won gold medals in men’s artistic gymnastics on floor after which won vault for the murder of his twin, sparking celebrations across the archipelago in a rustic desperate to see heroes wherever it may well find them.
Yulo has received praise from President Marcos to regular Juan dela Cruz. From all the people of the Philippines, especially the netizens, one national sports association has been severely criticized in every possible way for its Olympic bets being played without PH flag uniforms and equipment.
But before and after these events got here many other great achievements.
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Unfortunately, and Gilas
Unfortunately, Pilipinas fell in love with a rustic that suddenly fell in love with women’s volleyball; Gilas Pilipinas impressed in Latvia during the Olympic qualifying tournament and declared that it was, amongst other things, his place.
Filipino-born, Japanese-passport-holding LPGA phenom Yuka Saso won her second U.S. Women’s Open last June before Rianne Malixi ruled the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Junior Girls tournaments over American Asterisk Talley, becoming the only second-place player who has ever won each titles in the same year.
It really would have been a banner year for golf until the commotion in Paris happened.
However, 2024 will probably be dedicated to the Olympic Games. Thanks to Yulo’s feat, the entire country will now see the Olympics as one in which a Filipino can excel. Gone are the days when sending a delegation there was seen as token participation.
Yulo will probably be at the forefront again when the next edition takes place in Los Angeles in 2028.
Yulo bites into her first gold medal while celebrating her men’s floor exercise win at Bercy Arena, while golfer Dottie Ardina (pictured below) shows off the process she went through in this Instagram collage to tape a PH flag to her tee before each round.
“Definitely. I’ll be there 100 percent,” Yulo said when asked if he could be willing to undergo it again to try to repeat the performance. “Four years. It’s still a long way. I just hope I stay healthy and injury-free.”
The fame, the overwhelming reception by a grateful nation and a guaranteed place in the pantheon of Filipino sports heroes and the riches that these victories brought will be sure that Yulo won’t ever tire of going through all of it repeatedly.
The 24-year-old dynamo and pride of Levariza in Manila was given a hero’s welcome by an adoring country and was showered with financial gifts from each the government and the private sector – estimated to be value greater than P100 million – for all his exertions and separation from his family in purpose of coaching abroad.
Yulo was expected to turn into a gold medalist as early as 2020 in Tokyo, where weightlifting star Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo broke the deadlock in winning Olympic gold for the first time and claimed a victory that ended an almost century-long wait for the Philippines to attend the four-year meet.
Although she didn’t make it to Paris and prolonged her stay at the Olympics to 5 in a row, Diaz-Naranjo feels hungry as she looks at a return to the global sporting spectacle in 4 years.
But for Yulo, doing it again, and perhaps more, is a given – and the whole country believes in it, because the newest sports hero continues to be in excellent physical shape.
Boxers and their bronzes
Two other Filipino women’s boxer shorts establishments stood out in the glamorous French capital. Nesthy Petecio won a single-edition bronze medal after winning silver in Tokyo in the women’s featherweight division, carving her legacy in stone.
There can be Aira Villegas, who also won bronze in the women’s light heavyweight category in her first trip to the Olympic ring.
These achievements, marked by Yulo’s gold performance, bested Diaz-Naranjo’s version of the gold in Tokyo, the pair of silver medals taken home by boxer Carlo Paalam and Petecio, and the bronze medal by skilled boxer Eumir Marcial.
With 22 Filipino players representing nine sports participating, Paris 2024 didn’t end without difficulty for Team Philippines, especially after Dottie Ardina took to social media to specific her outrage at having to tape the PH flag on her chest before each round of the women’s golf tournament at Le Golf Nacional.
“Sana, all in uniform,” Ardina announced in a social media post that immediately went viral, especially after she and Bianca Pagdanganan were the only ones with a probability to win gold for the Philippines in the final days of the Games.
“There are 22 Filipino athletes and us [together with Pagdanganan] they are the only ones without [uniforms]– Ardina continued in Filipino. “We had to buy T-shirts. My God, what an Olympics [participation] Is this it?”
The ultimate golf finish
Dottie Ardin
This controversy continued long after the Olympics as even unusual sports fans with little knowledge of golf desired to keep heads turning at the National Golf Association of the Philippines. Even the Senate stepped in and investigated the snafu, which greatly weakened Pagdanganan’s fourth place and Ardina’s thirteenth place.
“Besides not having the proper uniforms, we didn’t have golf balls, hats, gloves or a golf umbrella. They only provided us with bags and golf shoes,” complained Ardina, who decided to interrupt her silence for the sake of other Filipino Olympians.
The long-hitting Pagdanganan became the highest-ranked Filipino in women’s golf after she tied with Australia’s Hannah Green, Korea’s Amy Yang and Japan’s Miyu Yamashita. In Tokyo 2020, she beat the ninth results of Yuki Saso, who was still playing as a Filipina at the time.
Paired with Ardina, who finished thirteenth despite heavy hearts, the duo became the first Filipino pair to complete in the top 15 in Olympic women’s golf despite the controversy.
And like Yulo, Ardina stated that she would happily wear the PH uniform again if asked to accomplish that again.
“I would do it again, with all my heart,” she told the Inquirer in an exclusive interview after returning home from Paris. “From the first day of my youth, I used to be very proud to represent the Philippines. I’ll do that for the remainder of my profession.”
Meanwhile, Yulo faced controversy even before returning home as social media feasted on his problems with his mother.
I do not like Chloe
The mother-son feud began over Carlos’ alleged misuse of incentives from previous international competitions, before the gymnast’s mother, Angelica, reportedly disliked her son’s girlfriend, Chloe.
Carlos has since urged his mother to place the controversy aside and “move on” as the family is drawn into public scrutiny.
“My message to you is: keep going. I forgave you a long time ago,” Carlos said in Filipino in a TikTok video. “I also pray that you will always be safe and that you will always be in a good place.”
He also promised to maintain up with Chloe, saying, “Let’s stop it all and celebrate the hardships and sacrifices of every Filipino athlete here in Paris.”
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Take it from Carlos Yulo, PH Sports will proceed to construct one other banner year.
Wow