Paris, France, August 3, 2024: The Philippines has its first male Olympic Games champion – artistic gymnast Carlos Yulo.
His victory in the men’s floor exercise at Bercy Arena on Saturday followed the gold medal for Hidilyn Diaz in women’s weightlifting at Tokyo 2020. Diaz earned the Philippines their first gold medal in history - and now they have two.
Yulo, known as “Caloy”, won gold with a score of 15.000. Artem Dolgopyat of Israel took the silver with 14.966 and Jake Jarman of Great Britain finished third for bronze with 14.933 in the tightest of finishes.
Yulo spoke about the significance of his gold medal back home.
"We are a really small country and the portion of athletes is not the same as the US or UK, so to be able to get a gold medal is really big for us,” he said.
"I dedicate this to the Filipinos who supported me. I'm really grateful to them. I want to say thank you for watching and praying for me throughout the competition."
On increasing his difficulty score from qualification by 0.30 in the final, Yulo added: “I adjusted my D (difficulty) score to qualify safely. It's really stressful for my body and mind. In the final, I went for it. I didn’t hesitate."