Carlos Yulo

Carlos Edriel Yulo (born February 16, 2000) is a Filipino artistic gymnast who has won bronze and gold at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. He is the first Filipino and the first male Southeast Asian gymnast to win in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships with his floor exercise bronze medal finish in 2018, and the first ever gold medal for the Philippines in 2019 on the same apparatus. This performance also qualified him to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Carlos Edriel Yulo was born on February 16, 2000 to Mark Andrew Yulo and Angelica Yulo in Manila, Philippines, and raised on Leveriza Street in Malate.He is the second of five children; one of his younger siblings, Drew, is also a gymnast, and strives to outdo his older brother and his achievements. Yulo grew up watching Filipino gymnasts train and compete at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Malate.

Yulo attended Aurora A. Quezon Elementary School for his primary education in Manila, where he was already training for the Philippine National Games as part of the National Capital Region's gymnastics team. Through the support of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines, he was able to attend Adamson University in Ermita for his secondary education.

He also entered Teikyo University in Itabashi, Tokyo in 2013 to pursue a degree in literature. This academic undertaking has made Yulo fluent in the Japanese language. In 2018, Yulo accepted an offer by the Japan Olympic Association to train in Japan under a scholarship program.

Junior

Yulo, at seven years old, was part of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines program. He was brought to the association after his grandfather took notice of him performing somersault while in the playground. As a child, Yulo was provided by the Philippine Sports Commission free training at the Rizal Memorial Complex with Ricardo Ortero as his coach. He started competing in 2008. Among the tournaments he competed in included the Palarong Pambansa, the national tournament for students in the Philippines, as part of the National Capital Region's gymnastics team. He did not secure a medal in the first edition he took part in but reached the top podium the following year. In the 2011 Palarong Pambansa, Yulo garnered four gold medals, while he claimed another gold medal finish for the 2011 Philippine National Games.

With consent from his parents, he left for Tokyo in 2016 for further training under Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya. He entered the limelight in 2017 when he competed at the 14th Junior Asian Championships in Bangkok, Thailand, and despite suffering from a sprained ankle in training, clinched gold in the parallel bars after qualifying in fourth place.

Senior

Yulo began competing as a senior in 2018, at 18 years old. In his Gymnastics World Cup debut in the 2018 series, he consistently performed well, winning a medal in the Melbourne, Baku, Doha, and Cottbus events. At the men's floor exercise event at the 2018 Asian Games, he scored highest in the qualification phase but failed to secure a medal after finishing 7th in the final.

At the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Yulo advanced to the all-around and floor exercise finals. He won bronze in the floor exercisebecoming the first Filipino and the first male Southeast Asian gymnast to win a medal at the championships. At the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Yulo claimed gold in the floor exercise finals. A historic feat as the first ever Filipino winning gold at a world gymnastics championship.

By advancing to the final round of the all-around event of the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Yulo secured qualification to compete for the Philippines at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

At the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, Yulo finished on the podium in every event winning gold in the all-around and floor exercise and silver in the pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar.

Yulo reportedly trains for six to eight hours a day, six days per week.

Competitive history

Year	Event	Team	AA	FX	PH	SR	VT	PB	HB
2018
	World Cup Series (Melbourne)			7
	World Cup Series (Baku)
	World Cup Series (Doha)						5
	World Cup Series (Cottbus)
	Asian Games		7	7			4
	World Championships
2019
	World Cup Series (Melbourne)
	World Cup Series (Doha)
	All Japan Senior Championships
	Southeast Asian Games
	World Championships		10

Awards

• President's Award, 2020 Philippine Sportswriters Association Awards