Sports Illustrated made a bold prediction in its recent issue, naming the athletes who would win the gold, silver, and bronze medals in every discipline in every sport. The said magazine predicted Carlos Yulo of winning the silver medal in the floor exercise event this weekend. He might defy the odds, as he advanced to the finals of three events after the first day of competition.
Carlos Yulo made his breakthrough in the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastic Championship in Stuttgart, Germany, placing tenth in the all-around individual competition and then finishing first in the floor exercise finals. No Filipino gymnast achieved such a feat on the global stage. Many local fans expected him to be the first Filipino gymnast to win an Olympic medal, if not the first Filipino gymnast to become the Olympic champion. But his experience at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics opened his eyes.
"I learned a lot from my experience at the Tokyo Olympics,” Yulo said. “I realized that your greatest opponent is yourself. If you don’t focus on what you do, you are bound to finish last.’’
Yulo, who was raised in Malate, Manila, made some costly mistakes in the qualifying rounds, which resulted in being left out in the medal round of the floor exercise, his pet event. He qualified for the finals of the vault, finishing sixth. Yulo, then 21 years of age, learned those hard lessons and used it on his next big event.
The 2021 World Artistic Gymnastic Championship was held in Kitakyushu, Japan. The competition took place two months after the Tokyo Olympics, so Yulo was determined to put those disappointing Olympic moments behind him. And he did. Yulo won the gold in the vault and then silver in the parallel bars. Yulo finished fifth in the floor exercise.
At the 2022 World Artistic Gymnastic Championship in Liverpool, Great Britain, Yulo finished second in the vault and third in the parallel bars. Yulo finished eighth in the all-around individual finals. Yulo settled for fourth in the finals of the floor exercise event in the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastic Championships in Antwerp, Belgium. Yulo's previous performances would make him one of the contenders in the 2024 Summer Olympics. True enough.
The Gymnastics Association of the Philippines accompanied Yulo to Paris. and they noticed that he took things a bit loose. not putting pressure on himself and enjoying the moment at the Bercy Arena. The Filipino ace gymnast safely landed in the finals of three events, namely the all-around individual, vault, and floor exercise.
“Very relaxed si Carlos, but we will be in full energy and full force in the finals,” said Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion.
Carrion is optimistic that Yulo would win one or two gold medals. The Gymnastics Association of the Philippines is intrigued at the preliminary results.
Jake Jarman is a British artistic gymnast from Petersborough, UK, who made his breakthrough in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK. He won four gold medals including the all-around team event and the all-around individual event. He was a member of the British team that won the bronze medal in the 2022 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool later that year. Jarman did better in the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, winning the gold medal in the vault.
Jarman was born in Petersborough to a British father and a Filina mother from Cebu.
Jarman and Yulo finished first and second, respectively, in the floor exercise. Israel's Artem Dolgopyat, the reigning world champion, was seventh in the preliminaries. Can Jarman and Yulo hold on to the top spots? Will Dolgopyat make a comeback in the medal round? Let's take a look at the final eight (in the floor exercise):
Yulo failed to make it to the podium after winning the world title in 2019, but he managed to qualify for the medal round the succeeding years. If he kept his cool and composure, then he would have a good chance of winning a medal in his favorite event. He has tough competition, though. (Milad Karim of Kazakhstan won the bronze medal in the finals of the floor exercise event in the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.) Here's our prediction:
Nerves will play a part in the apparatus finals. Anything can happen in the Olympics. Yulo has a fighting chance.
Jarman, the reigning world champion in the pole vault, is the gold-medal favorite ON PAPER. This is the preliminary results in the vault:
Nazar Chepurnyi, who finished third in the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships (in the vault), stood in first place after the preliminaries. Harry Hepworth, another British standout, finished second. Croatia's Aurel Benovic was fourth in the 2024 World Gymnastic Cup (in Doha), his performance clinching a place in the Paris Olympics.
Yulo is the dark horse in this event. It comes down to the landing, or the perfect landing, and the Filipino ace gymnast has been doing lots of it during practice. Our picks:
Yulo finished ninth in the all-around individual preliminary event, but Carrion doesn't hope for a podium finish in this blue-ribbon event in gymnastics. It's floor exercise or vault. Or floor exercise and vault. Your thoughts?
The finals of the men’s floor will be held on August 3 while the finals of the men’s vault is scheduled on August 4.
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