Yulo braces for ‘mission impossible’

Although winning the gold medal seems impossible, Carlos Yulo will still go all out when he competes in the all-around event of the Paris Olympics on Wednesday at the Bercy Arena.

Action starts at 11:30 p.m. with the 24-year-old Yulo facing a star-studded cast of gymnasts bannered by Chinese and Japanese aces with Filipino-British star Jake Jarman looming as dark horse.

The all-around will be the first in Yulo’s three chances to win the country’s second Olympic gold medal. Should he fail to make it, he still has another chance to bring home medals in floor exercise on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. and vault on Sunday at 10:24 p.m.

Gymnastics president Cynthia Carrion came up with a very realistic forecast on Yulo’s chances, saying that landing on the medal podium of the all-around event is “impossible” but winning a medal or two floor exercise and vault is very doable.

After all, Yulo is a world champion in floor exercise in 2019 and vault in 2021, making him one of the gymnasts to beat in his second Olympic stint.

“Not so much in all-around,” Carrion told DAILY TRIBUNE when asked about his expectations on her prized ward in the all-around event.

Carrion was a good reason to temper her expectations.

Yulo will be competing against 23 of the best gymnasts in the world led by Daiki Hashimoto of Japan, who is looking to become the third Japanese to emerge as back-to-back Olympic champion of this event.

Sawao Kato was the first Japanese to achieve the feat in 1968 in Mexico and 1972 in Munich before Kohei Uchimura replicated it in 2012 in London and 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

Shinnosuke Oka is another Japanese contender in the all-events topped by Boheng Zhang of China in the qualifying, with compatriot Ruoteng Xiao coming at fourth.

Also in the mix in the final are Joe Fraser of Great Britain, Oleg Verniaiev and Illia Kovtun of Ukraine, Yumin Abbadini and Mario Macchiati of Italy, Frederick Richard and Paul Juda of the United States, Matteo Giubellini and Florian Langenegger of Switzerland, Krisztofer Meszaros of Hungary, Jesse Moore of Australia, Casimir Schmidt and Frank Rijken of the Netherlands, Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan, Diogo Soares of Brazil, Felix Dolci and Rene Cournoyer of Canada, and Nils Dunkel of Germany.

Zhang had a qualifying score of 88.597 while Yulo had a mere 83.631 for a ninth-place finish. Oka scored 86.865, Hashimoto 85.064, Xiao 84.898 and Jarman 84.897.