Golden Boy

Carlos Yulo was unstoppable in bringing honor to the country with his haul of two gold medals one day after the other at the Paris Olympics. His Saturday win on the floor was already heaven. His vault victory on Sunday was nirvana.

He rewrote Philippine sporting history by becoming the only Filipino athlete so far to win back-to-back gold medals in the Summer Games.

If his being a two-time Olympic gold medalist at 24 is a taste of paradise, Carlos proves to all and sundry that paradise is beautiful, euphoric, reachable. But like all things beautiful, blood, sweat and tears are the requisites.

Before the victory, Caloy and the Filipino nation knew that failure was first in the Olympian’s fate. Despite his many wins in the world stage of gymnastics, he failed to land a podium finish at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

But fate is reversible to a man who has faith — in God, in his country, in his skills. In his dreams. Caloy’s faith foretells of a sweet reward earned from being brokenhearted.

Who knows what physical and psychological setbacks he underwent when he failed in Tokyo? But his grit saw him through. And now, in Gay Paree, he’s back with a vengeance, so to speak. Sweet victory for him. Sweet victory, indeed.

Sweet victory, too, for the Philippines. On the Olympics medal table, as of this writing, the Philippines, with Carlos’ two gold, is No. 22 out of 184 teams participating in the Games. (Technically, reports say, there are 206 National Olympic Committees represented at the 2024 Summer Games from July 26 to Aug. 11.) The medal haul will hopefully swell as a few more Filipino athletes are poised to score medals for the country, what with Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas already assured of a medal in their respective boxing women’s tilts.

Caloy’s victory is the golden inscription that hard work is the Lotto for all the dreamers out there. He was seven when he began training his arms and legs, skills and genius in gymnastics, perhaps an uncanny sport for a man in the macho, phallus-centric Philippines. But that notorious muscle-flexing culture was already shattered by Hidilyn Diaz, a woman now married, who first scored the country, with her muscles and strength, a gold in the Olympics in weightlifting in Tokyo 2020.

The trajectory of Caloy’s success through hard work was evident when he joined competitions in schools. He reportedly moved up to join Palarong Pambansa, the breeding ground for all hopefuls. He started winning in the international stage as he became older, with two gold wins in the World Championships. Then, with the greatest performance of his life at the Bercy Arena in the floor exercise, he won his first gold in Paris. And within an almost 24-hour interval, he repeated the historic feat with another gold when he eclipsed other competitors in men’s vault with “speed, power and precision,” as Nelson Beltran reported for The STAR.

If hard work could take physical form, it would find its essence in the almost five-foot frame of Caloy. He’s a David in the arena of Goliaths. The slingshot is his heart filled and full of determination, a dream ensconced in his thoughts when he was 12, the age he first dreamt of winning a gold in the Olympics.

His two gold medals are more than profound proof that dreams are real. Dreams are valid. And despite the odds, for every athlete experiences stumbling blocks along the way, Caloy proves he is more than capable of rising to the occasion. And the odds? He never allowed them to invalidate his dreams.

In the firmament of being self-assured because he was prepared, Caloy, like a gladiator, took to the arena his strength, ready to show the world that he can slay with grace, with power, with style, with a battle game. At the Games, he was both a whiff of fresh air ready to stun and a tornado ready to devastate. He was opulence and simplicity on stage. A spectacle.

Hard work results in pure spectacle. What the world saw in Caloy were his accurate routines and outstanding somersaults, a picture of perfection as he defied gravity, seeming to fly in his spot in the arena. His arms were his wings, his moves were agile and precise, his grit was an unsullied marvel.

Caloy’s victory is a golden reminder — again and again — to a country so agog over basketball that there are other sports where we fit in. And where the Pinoy athlete fits in is where he excels.

Unlike basketball, gymnastics is not a popular sport in the country. Aside from the Rizal Stadium, many Pinoys do not know where else they can find a gym for wannabe gymnasts. But hopeful hoopers find a basketball court in every nook and cranny — even on top of piled tombs in a cemetery.

May Caloy’s victory bring to light that there’s more to Philippine sport than basketball. We surely clap for our cagers. We support them, too. But we also want to render our applause to other sportsmen excelling in other games. (Let me not start harping on the elusive medal in swimming considering that the Filipinos are born to an archipelago.)

Pre-Carlos Yulo, The Gen X in me only knew Bea Lucero as the country’s representative to the game of gymnastics in the world stage. Bea brought honor to the country, too, but her chance at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 (the year I started becoming engross in Olympic Games, with partiality to gymnastics) was blown away allegedly by some politics. There, if we want to raise athletes of golden stature, politics in sports should be resolved if not diminished all at once. (By the way, Bea Lucero won a bronze medal in a demonstration sport of taekwondo in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.)

Caloy afforded the Filipinos magnificent, magnanimous moments with his twin wins. Twice the Philippine National Anthem was sung at the Paris Olympics. Twice the Philippine flag was raised above the flags of his competitors at the victory ceremonies. Two moments of joy is a lifetime to remember. (Honestly, I thought I would never see in my lifetime a golden moment like this — two consecutive nights of singing with the world Lupang Hinirang. Caloy will always be in my gratitude list.)

If only to overemphasize my point, Caloy’s victory is a lesson for dreamers. The platitude is true: there is no shortcut to success. Instant gratification is only for the foolhardy and fainthearted. Fulfillment for Caloy’s career as an athlete was not delayed; it came right in time.

Olympic Games were started in Greece in honor of Zeus, the father of all Greek gods and goddesses. The Olympics are no longer Greek to the Philippines and the gods of the sporting game are no longer an alien concept to the Filipinos.

In our midst is Carlos Yulo — a golden boy, and, in his own right, a gymnastics god. *