Aside from his athletic achievement, 2024 will be remembered as the year when a shy, unassuming boy from a poor district in Manila soared high to overcome personal adversities that made him one of the greatest Filipino athletes ever.

On the surface, Carlos Yulo may look like a typical elite athlete. He may be short for a gymnast at 4-foot-11 but his achievements speak for themselves with a truckload of gold medals that include two from the World Championships, 10 from the Asian Championships and nine from the Southeast Asian Games.

The brightest among his collection, however, were those that he won in Paris last August. Yulo stood tall against the best gymnasts in the world when he emerged with two gold medals from floor exercise and vault events to complete a feat that no Filipino athlete had ever done in the annals of the country’s rich sports history.

But behind that boyish smile and humble demeanor lie some inner demons that he bravely overcame on his way to greatness.

And for scoring a perfect 10 against life’s biggest adversities, Yulo emerged as a strong candidate for DAILY TRIBUNE’s 2024 Filipino of the Year.

No easy life

Yulo’s path to greatness was littered with tears.

He was barely seven years old when he would walk to a local playground to do cartwheels and tumbles. Then, his grandfather, Rodrigo, would take him to the gymnastics hall inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex after school at the Aurora A. Quezon Elementary School in Malate to train, not just to get better, but also to put something on his stomach.

Life wasn’t easy. But the young Yulo’s dreams were far bigger than those challenges.

His perseverance paid off when he represented the National Capital Region in the Palarong Pambansa in Tacloban in 2009. He was just nine years old but he shone against the brightest young stars in the country with routines that he perfected while battling various challenges of life.

He sustained his momentum by dominating various age-group tourneys like the Philippine National Games, Batang Pinoy and the ASEAN School Games until landing a spot in the national team.

Through the support of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines, he managed to enroll at Adamson University for high school.

In 2016, a small door of opportunity swung wide open.

The Japan Gymnastics Association and the Japan Olympic Committee tapped Yulo to become one of their scholars in a program that aims to develop elite Asian gymnasts.

Noted Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya took him under his wings and trained at the Tokushukai Gymnastics Club. He also studied Literature at the Teikyo University in Tokyo, giving him a chance to practically absorb the Japanese way of living.

With Munehiro and the powerhouse Japanese gymnastics program backing him up, Yulo broke through with a gold medal in the floor exercise event of the 2019 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championship.

His feat at Stuttgart earned him a spot in the Summer Olympics that will be held in Tokyo the following year. He became the first Filipino gymnast to see action in the Olympics since Ernesto Beren and Norman Henson campaigned in the 1968 edition in Mexico.

After his failed Olympic stint, Yulo continued training in Tokyo with the hopes of bouncing back in the next Summer Games in Paris.

But his hard work came with a hefty price as homesickness started to creep in. He admitted that he was in such a dark place that he even entertained the thoughts of taking his own life.

“To tell you honestly, I was at a point that I wanted to just simply vanish. I nearly took my own life,” Yulo said a few weeks after winning a pair of gold medals in Paris.

“But I prayed until I fell asleep. After that, I felt at ease and the following day, my feeling was lighter. That’s how my faith in God started. I carried that until the Olympics and I believe that all the challenges He gave me would lead to good results.”

“I learned to be grateful and thankful for all the things He has given me. That’s why I often cry whenever I say during interviews that I give everything to Him. Through His grace, we made it.”

Strained relationships

Inside the arena, Yulo was dominating. But when the lights were turned off, he was depressed and vulnerable.

Then on a balmy night of 20 April 2020, a Melbourne-based content creator slid into his social media DM (direct message) to say “hi.”

The simple greeting sparked a romance that not only inspired Yulo to work harder but also drove a wedge between him and his loved ones, especially his Japanese coach and mother.

Chloe San Jose had shown remarkable love and concern to Yulo.

She served as his shoulder to cry on when things are not going right. At one point, she even took a backbreaking 10-hour flight from Melbourne to Hanoi just to personally cheer for him when he vaulted his way to victories in the 31st Southeast Asian Games in 2022.

Still, there were some serious casualties in their love affair.

Yulo, for one, decided to cut ties with Kugimiya months before he competed in the Paris Olympics. Sources said cracks started to show up in their once-sturdy mentor-student relationship when the 22-year-old social media influencer with golden hair came into the picture as Yulo’s thirst for winning suddenly diminished.

When they parted ways, Yulo was orphaned as he was forced to compete without a coach until Cebuano Aldrin Castañeda, his mentor in the junior ranks, came over to help him prepare for the Summer Games.

But the biggest casualty was his ties with his family.

Sideliners claim that Yulo’s mother, Angelica and San Jose were not seeing eye to eye. Things came to a head when Yulo’s younger brother, Eldrew, was preparing for the 2023 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Singapore.

Eldrew and a teammate, Miguel Besana, were supposed to stay at Yulo’s apartment while training in Tokyo. The plan, however, fizzled out as Angelica claimed that Eldrew and Besana had a change of heart after learning that San Jose was staying with the gymnastics star at the time.

Angelica said Eldrew and Besana were still minors who can’t afford to be at the same house where Yulo and his girlfriend are staying.

“Ang naging mitsa talaga nito ay yung babae talaga,” Angelica said in a tell-all radio interview.

“Patutulugin ko ‘yung anak ko, menor de edad, kasama siya at ‘yung babae? Pangalawa, si Miguel, hindi rin siya papayagan ng parent niya,”

San Jose, however, didn’t take anything sitting down. She fired back at Angelica on social media, especially in the aftermath of the Paris Olympics when Yulo was over the moon with two gold medals and over P100 million, properties, cars and massive fame in his back pocket.

San Jose even defended Yulo when he branded his mother as “magnanakaw” on social media, sparking an all-out social media war that somehow reduced the glow of the Filipino gymnast’s Olympic success.

“If you’re gonna get mad at me for standing up for myself, stay mad. if you’re gonna get mad at me for breaking the generational curse, stay mad,” San Jose said in a social media post.

“If you’re gonna get mad at me because I reacted to their disrespect and told the truth, stay mad.”

“If you’re gonna get mad at me for standing up for my partner against their toxicity, then stay mad.”

“I’m not here to please anyone. I know what I did and didn’t. Feel free to keep believing whatever you see and read online, it doesn’t matter. I know my truth and so do the people around me, most especially Mahal Carlos. The universe has my back.”

For one fleeting moment, the attention was not on Yulo’s historic achievement — it was on Angelica and San Jose. The entire nation was divided between Team Mommy and Team Chloe.

No forgiveness

Sadly, the wounds created by one of the most controversial family feuds in the country are still fresh.

Although Angelica already asked for forgiveness to his son, who is now a wealthy man with over P100 million in cash with condominium units, properties and vehicles, Yulo has yet to extend the olive branch that will put an end to their dispute.

Even Yulo’s father, Andrew, asked for forgiveness. In fact, when Yulo was given a victory parade by the City of Manila in honor of his Olympic triumph, Andrew was spotted in the thick of the crowd, helplessly hoping to get his son’s attention while holding a huge banner that reads: Caloy, dito Papa mo!

Not even Senatorial aspirant in former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson can melt the heart of Yulo.

Known for his generosity and heart for the athletes, Singson offered Yulo P5 million just to show humility by reaching out to his family. He also gave his family P1 million as an early Christmas present while rewarding Eldrew for his athletic achievements.

It didn’t move a needle. Yulo remains away from his family and it doesn’t seem that they will be a happy family anytime soon — not with the great success and wealth that Yulo now has.

Still, it doesn’t take away the fact that Yulo is the country’s best athlete in the year that passed.

His success in the City of Lights shone through and broke the barriers that prompted him to surpass all the achievements that Hidilyn Diaz, Manny Pacquiao, Lydia de Vega-Mercado and all the great Filipino athletes before him had accomplished.

But more than that, it’s his ability to ward off distractions that truly made him one of a kind. He marched to Paris without his Japanese coach and battled the demons caused by loneliness, vulnerability and the catfight between his girlfriend and family along the way to becoming the greatest Filipino athlete ever.

Truly, the year 2024 belongs to Yulo.

Hopefully, 2025 will be a better year for him, especially when the lights are off.