Congratulations to gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo, the first Filipino ever to win double Olympic gold medals, topping the floor exercises and vault events and also starting the country’s first-ever gold medal streak, just 3 years after we ended our almost-100-year gold medal drought, brought to us by weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
The Philippines first joined the Olympic games in Paris 1924, but finally got its first gold medal in Tokyo 2020 (actually 2021 because it was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic). Now, midway into Paris 2024, we already have a total of 3 golds. That’s what you call progress, but at the same time, those of us who are all too familiar with the way our government does things are hoping this gold medal streak isn’t just luck-fueled. Additionally, the Paris games aren’t done yet, and we still have some medal contenders in the mix, which could make our haul even better.
However, on a personal achievement level, Yulo’s two gold medals will be tough to beat. Gymnastics is one of the few Olympic sports that provides multiple medal opportunities, granted we get someone talented, skilled, and determined enough to qualify.
Another reason why his achievement will be hard to match is his path to the Olympics, which compared to that of Diaz, and pole vaulter EJ Obiena, seemed to encounter less rough waters in terms of soliciting the necessary support and resources to mount a successful Olympic campaign. For one, Yulo was able to get a scholarship and training from the Japan Olympic Association, which essentially removed a part of his training and development from the influence and whims of Filipino politicos who could very easily sabotage the Olympic dreams of any Filipino that is dependent on them for support.
It is not clear if the Carlos Yulo formula is applicable to other Filipino athletes and sports, but hopefully our government officials have seen the light and are willing to make the necessary adjustments so we can have a better system for discovering, nurturing, and supporting Filipino Olympic greatness, instead of just relying on luck and our vaunted resilience all the time.
Yulo’s historic double gold that many of us never imagined possible, proves that Filipinos don’t have to resort to claiming ownership of outstanding medal-winning athletes from other nations, by virtue of genetics or ancestry anymore. The way to get these medal-winning Pinoys on our team is to build a system where potential is allowed to turn into excellence, which at this point, still means a vast and deliberate improvement on the way our sports and Olympic officials do their thing.
Because if you come to think of it, perhaps Caloy’s achievement is the hump that we need to get over so we no longer have to research the Filipino roots of every Pinoy-looking or Pinoy-name-sounding Olympic medalist or achiever out there anymore. He has proven that we can somehow produce our own gold medalists, home grown, and proudly choose to wear the country’s colors. When he won the gold, it was our flag that went up to the top spot and our national anthem that was played at the venue.
Because of his amazing double gold, we didn’t have to perform any mental gymnastics to justify his Pinoyness. No need to look up his mom or dad’s heritage, the same way some of us automatically formulated the backup medal plan of putting in the typical Pinoy effort of establishing that eventual floor exercise bronze medalist, the British Jake Jarman’s mom is Pinoy, maybe so we can claim him as one of our own, in case our potential golden boy failed.
The double gold also proves that we can do it, that given the right person and combination of circumstances, Filipinos are capable of not only competing with the world’s best, but even emerging not only victorious, but in a dominant fashion to boot.
As a Filipino athlete, Carlos Yulo’s path to the double gold medal was never meant to be easy. There is no such thing as luck for our achievers, and what they went through just to make it to the Olympics alone is already enough to make many quit and change countries, where it is much easier to shine, given the support and resources available. It may have been less controversial, compared to that of Hidilyn Diaz who was added to a made-up illegal drug matrix just for kicks, or EJ Obiena’s row with the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association when he was not yet able to establish himself as the world’s number 2 ranked pole vaulter, but being a Filipino working within our often-bulok system, we can be certain it wasn’t easy for Caloy Yulo too.
Our hope is that two Filipino Olympians have successfully won gold medals in two successive Olympics, and we have proven that the first was not a fluke, we can focus on looking deep into flaws and shortcomings of the system that has prevented us from achieving greatness consistently. If we can do that and excel in sports, maybe we can also do the same for governance and unlock the greatness that Filipinos always had the potential for, but were never able to consistently achieve.*
