WITH a ticket to the 2024 Olympics in the bag, the next major task is to get Carlos Yulo fully-equipped for his golden mission in Paris.
Gymnastics chief Cynthia Carrion said Mr. Yulo needs an extensive training and competition program overseas under the supervision of a new coach in place of Munehiro Kugiyama after wrapping up his stint in the Olympic-qualifying World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.
“To get gold medals in the Olympics, he needs to compete in all World Cups for practice and see his competitors as well as the Asian Championships in Kazakhstan,” Ms. Carrion told The STAR.
Mr. Yulo secured a seat to Paris Games after emerging as the highest-ranked eligible athlete in the floor exercise in the world meet. The Philippine pride scored 14.600 points in the preliminaries to third behind Artem Dogopyat of Israel (15.100) and Frederick Richard of the US (14.600), both of whom had already secured Olympic berths prior, going to the floor finale.
“Having the highest score in the floor, as two others ahead of him are part of the (qualified) team or all-around, he is entitled to compete in all apparatus,” Ms. Carrion said.
But Mr. Yulo will embark on this journey minus Mr. Kugiyama, who played a big part in his development as a world-class gymnast. The two went their separate ways ahead of the Antwerp worlds.
“I will get him a coach to monitor him as he knows what to do to win but needs good monitoring,” said Ms. Carrion.
She said it would be better for the 23-year-old pocket rocket to have his preparations overseas, away from distractions.
“He wants to join a lot of training camps away from the Philippines. That is our plan to go forward as he can get at least two gold medals in the Olympics,” she said.
Ms. Carrion also advised Mr. Yulo to “stop reading all the gossip in social media as it will distract him.”
She underscored the need to hire a nutritionist and psychologist for Mr. Yulo.
“Need PSC (Philippine Sports Commission) full support,” said Ms. Carrion.
Mr. Yulo won’t be the only gymnast from the Philippines seeing action in France. Fil-Am Aleah Finnegan also booked a ticket to the Olympiad yesterday after placing among the 14 strongest all-arounders whose teams did not qualify. — Olmin Leyba
