After making history with two gold medals in the Paris Olympics, Carlos Yulo’s life has completely changed. He is now a wealthy man.

The list of his prizes is as impressive as the Eiffel Tower. In fact, sportswriters are having a hard time keeping track.

In all, he is on track to receive around P70 million in cash from the government and the private sector, aside from real estate, a car and other mouthwatering rewards that only a double Olympic gold medalist truly deserves.

But if sportswriters are having a hard time counting — so is the 24-year-old Yulo and his 21-year-old girlfriend, Chloe. And that’s where the hard part begins.

They say that handling finances is such a “beautiful problem.” Yes, it can be stressful, but it also gives you the power to decide where to put all your wealth to make sure that it will last a lifetime.

But not all athletes are like Yulo. Some of them struggled financially before dying dirt poor with no one remembering the honor they had brought the country.

Remember Anthony Villanueva, the country’s first ever Olympics silver medalist? He spent the rest of his life as a lowly boxing trainer before dying in 2014 – 50 years after winning a silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

His reward from the Philippine Sports Commission was a mere P200,000, which took four visits to the PSC’s Manila headquarters before it was finally released. He also entered showbiz and made five movies where he was paid P5,000 to P7,000 per project — in installments!

When all of his options to have a better life ran out, he tried to sell his most treasured possession — his Olympic medal — for a mere P1 million. Of course, no one bought it out of respect and pity for the man who nearly became the country’s first ever Olympic gold medalist.

Although the fate of Villanueva will definitely not happen to modern-day Olympic medalists like Yulo, Hidilyn Diaz, Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam, Eumir Marcial and Aira Petecio, his story should serve as a fitting reminder that being on top will not last a lifetime. The luster of their star power will soon fade and the next generations will eventually forget their names and their achievements.

But while they’re on top, they should carefully manage their wealth and handle it properly as if their lives depended on it.

Winning an Olympic medal – especially a gold – happens only once in a lifetime. The rewards that go along with it are truly life-changing, if not overwhelming.

Yulo has to surround himself with good people who can give him sound advice on how to manage his future and protect his legacy. He can set up a business, get married, donate to charity or grow the sport by establishing a training facility like Diaz did in Jala-Jala, Rizal.

But at the end of the day, the choice of how to manage his fortune is for him to make. He can either stay wealthy and enjoy the love and respect of this country or struggle financially and die dirt poor with nobody remembering who he used to be.

This is no longer gymnastics. This is now about life — real life. He has no choice but to execute a perfect 10 for himself and the people he loves.