What does it take to be a 2-time Olympic gold medalist? For a young boy from Malate, Manila, it was years of hard training, dedication, and a passion to shoot for the stars.

Born the second of four siblings, Carlos Edriel Poquiz Yulo was born on February 16, 2000, to Mark Andrew Yulo, a travel agent liaison, and Angelica Yulo, a homemaker. Growing up, he had always loved watching gymnastics, and he began training at the young age of 7.

The making of a legend: Carlos Yulo | Screengrab: Youtube/GMA News

Yulo is among the most celebrated athletes in Philippine history for bagging not just one but two coveted Olympic gold medals during the 2024 Paris Olympics. He is also the Filipino gymnast who became the first male athlete in Southeast Asia to win a gold medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics in 2019.

While little kids were running around at the playground, the young Carlos, or “Caloy,” was already tumbling and on balance training with his grandfather until he trained for the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP). He was in elementary school when he became part of the National Capital Region’s gymnastics team and trained for the Philippine National Games.

Since then, Yulo has pushed through with his passion for the sport. His first Palarong Pambansa was in 2009 in Tacloban, Leyte, where he finished in second and fifth place. His perseverance paid off in the subsequent Palarong Pambansa, where he won medals every year from 2010 to 2013.

His mother, Angelica, shared that they wanted Yulo to excel in sports so he could finish college. She said, “We did not expect that he would reach this level. We enrolled him in sports because our main dream was for him to graduate from a nice college without us having to spend money.”

Yulo’s biggest turn was in 2016, when he was offered a scholarship program from the Japan Olympic Association. At the age of 16, he moved to Japan to pour his heart and soul for gymnastics. He also studied at Teikyo University in Itabashi, Tokyo, where he graduated in 2022 with an associates degree in literature.

Yulo’s coach, Munehiro Kugimiya, shared that Yulo would train five hours a day, six days a week.

In 2019, Yulo made history as the first Filipino to win the gold medal in the men’s floor exercise category at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Stuttgart, Germany. This award catapulted him to being a sports star in the Philippines, with the Manila City Council passing a resolution conferring Yulo with the highest honors for being the first Filipino world gymnastics champion.

Following his win, Yulo shared that his success was always hard work. He once posted on social media, “Gymnastics is not always fun, and it’s not always about winning in the competition.”

Yulo continued to reap the rewards of this hard work when he won an impressive two gold and five silver medals at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

As with all winners, Yulo also had his tumbles, literally. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Yulo made mistakes and stumbled on his way to winning an Olympic medal. He ended the Olympics with no medal, but with lessons. He said, “I learned a lot from my experience at the [Tokyo] Olympics. I realized that your greatest opponent is yourself. If you don’t focus on what you do, you are bound to finish last.’’

Two years after the 2020 Olympics, Yulo pulled himself up to make Philippine sports history. He bagged his first Olympic gold medal in the men’s floor exercise finals, making him the first Filipino gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal and the second Filipino to win an Olympic gold medal, following weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz’s gold medal win in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Just a day later, Yulo bagged another gold in the vault finals, this time, making him the first Filipino to win 2 Olympic gold medals. “In life, there is no secret, just hard work,” the soft-spoken Yulo said.