Sports officials, fellow athletes and fans showed their support for Carlos Yulo after putting the country at center stage of the 50th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan.
Yulo’s name and nickname, “Caloy”, trended on social media over the weekend after winning the gold medal in vault and silver in parallel bars of the annual world event.
His success added another highlight to a promising year in Philippine sports, which saw the country winning its first Olympic gold medal courtesy of weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, golfer Yuka Saso prevailing in the prestigious US Women’s Open and cue artist Carlo Biado capturing the US Open Pool Championship.
“I’m very happy for Caloy. Certainly, he shall be a strong contender in 2024 Paris and 2028 Los Angeles OIympics,” Philippine Sports Commission chairman Butch Ramirez said.
The PH team is expected to ride on the crest of a successful Tokyo Olympics where it hauled with the most number of medals with one gold, two silver and one bronze medal.
“Caloy has learned a lot from the last Olympics. He is now maturing psychologically and that will be his new armament for the Games to come,” Philippine Olympic Committee President Bambol Tolentino said.
“We are now seeing that the new Caloy is unfolding.”
Tolentino was referring to Yulo’s missed chance of winning the floor exercise Olympic gold where he is the heavy favorite.
Fellow Tokyo Olympians Nesthy Petecio and EJ Obiena also congratulated Yulo’s recent feat in social media posts.
“Congratulations, bunso! Galing naman talaga! Naalala ko pa yung nag-usap tayo sa Olympics na babawi ka! Galing galing! Proud of you bunso!” wrote Olympic silver medalist Petecio on her Facebook account.
“Knew it,” posted national record holder in pole vault EJ Obiena on Instagram Stories, accompanied by a video of Yulo’s golden performance in vault.