I recently had a lightbulb moment with double Olympic gold medalist Carlos Yulo. “Lightbulb” because his humility struck me like the glow from a lightbulb that was just flicked on in a dark room. He was approachable, with a ready smile, even if he had just arrived from Paris the night before (on a trip with Toyota) and was understandably jet-lagged. I never once saw him look at his watch to indicate he was in a hurry to go home. He was respectful. He punctuated his sentences with “po.”

At a dinner hosted by Gambia Honorary Consul Agnes Huibonhoa and businesswoman Cristina Cuevas at the Cerveseria in BGC, where we were both guests, I asked Carlos what drove him to center stage in the podium of winners at the Paris Olympics, bringing tears to his countrymen’s eyes when their flag was raised twice in the arena. You really wanted to win, I said, stating the obvious.
The first Filipino and Southeast Asian double Olympic gold medalist Carlos Yulo.
But his reply was not stating the obvious.

He said that more than the desire to win, it was the memory of what he had been through to get to where he was that also spurred him.

“The journey po. ‘Yung process. It kept me going, it keeps me going, po,” he said.

“It’s not always the end result,” he added. “There’s always more to that that I can be grateful for.”
Olympic gold medalist Carlos Yulo with (from left) Gymnastics Association of the Philippines President Cynthia Carrion Norton, Doctors Z and Aivee Teo, Keli Teo and the author.

Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion Norton, who saw Carlos’ potential the moment she saw him training at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum gym when he was seven years old, knew whereof Carlos spoke.

“Well, so many times in Japan when he was training, he wanted to quit gymnastics,” she shared. “He didn’t want to go on. He didn’t want to continue. That’s when I really got mad at him. I said, ‘Carlos, please don’t do this. Don’t throw away all the training that you’ve had. You can’t. You’ve got to continue. Think of the future.’”

To further encourage him, Cynthia vowed, “I promise you, if you continue, you’ll be an Olympic champion. And I said, if you become an Olympic champion, you see, your life will change, Carlos.”

And life, indeed, has changed for Carlos. In the midst of his struggle he found his love, Chloe San Jose. Cynthia says Chloe keeps Carlos detached from his troubles in order to focus on his training.
Honorary Consul of Gambia Agnes Huibonhoa, Carlos and the author.
Aside from winning two golds at the Paris Olympics, Carlos is a six-time world championship medalist, winning two golds, two silvers, and two bronzes; a 10-time Asian champion; and a nine-time SEA Games champion. The trials, hoops and the obstacles to the finish line have been seared into Carlos’ memory so much so that even if he is savoring the fruits of his labor, he gets back on his feet and stays grounded after every triumph—the way he does after somersaults in a floor exercise.
Büm D. Tenorio Jr., Carlos and businesswoman Cristina Cuevas.
“So it’s not always the winning or being popular or having a lot of money po. It’s about what I built po during the hard days, the process po,” he said.

Cynthia believes that aside from gathering financial support for Carlos and being there for him whenever he faltered, her greatest gift to him was “bringing him to God.”

Thus, Carlos told me, even if his hands are calloused by all his training, “Lahat ng achievements ko, it’s all God. That’s why I am grateful and thankful.”

He believes his achievement at the Paris Olympics is a gift. So many things could have gone wrong.

“It’s God’s gift po, so I have to also like take it and use it to help other people,” he concluded. *