Yulo says Paris feat remains surreal

More than a month after his Paris Olympics masterpiece, gymnast Carlos Yulo is still reaping the rewards of his double gold medal feat.

In fact, Yulo is still trying to look into his busy schedule so he could spend some quality time in private.

“I still haven’t given myself some time to rest well. Once I do that, I will be able to think better and plan out my next move,” Yulo said moments after receiving P10 million from the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) yesterday at the Waterside in Solaire.

“Maybe not now but in the upcoming days, I do want to go to Palawan,” the 24-year-old living legend said.

Since arriving in the country following his gold medal win in the floor and vault, Yulo has been attending to a lot of things, including television appearances and receiving pledges from the private sector.

So far, Yulo has gotten P100 million in cash incentives apart from being given condominiums and houses and new cars as well.

While he has not yet returned to training, Yulo sees the 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, and the Asian Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships as his main events for 2025.

“The rewards I am receiving, I still can’t believe it. Back then, I would book a Grab car and I would still walk around without getting much attention,” Yulo said.

“Just like the other incentives that I received from the others, it is really super overwhelming, and it is really unexpected to receive another cash reward after they recognized our accomplishments, hard work in practices and sacrifices for the longest time.”

ICTSI executive vice president Christian Gonzalez, who represented its chairman and chief executive officer Enrique Razon, said giving out the incentives is something they would do to continue supporting the athletes in their future campaigns.

“It’s very important for us to support our athletes, it’s very important for our country. It is something we wanted to do more because of all the hard work that you put in for the last eight or 12 years or your entire life,” Gonzalez said.

Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino expressed his gratitude to the ICTSI and its support to the Olympians.

“Let us thank the ICTSI, Mr. Enrique Razon and Christian Gonzalez, for helping our athletes with these cash rewards. Our national athletes have performed their very best in the greatest show on earth at the Paris Olympics,” Tolentino said.

It wasn’t just Yulo who was rewarded by ICTSI. Bronze medalists Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio were given P2-million each while the non-medalists went home with P200,000 each.