“GREATEST PINOY ATHLETE OF ALL TIME”

One hundred years ago, on the dusty track of the Stade de Colombes in Paris, 24-year-old Filipino trackster David Nepomuceno was the first to actualize a national dream—to put the Philippines on the global sporting map and hopefully, despite facing faster, higher, stronger opponents from the Western world, climb on top of the podium.

That did not happen, of course, for the diminutive brown man finished dead last in two sprint events. Two white men from imperial Great Britain and the United States would rule the track.

And while Nepomuceno’s swimming pool successor Teofilo Yldefonso would experience what it feels to share the podium in the next two Olympiad, it would be a near-century grind of heartaches and disappointment before a Zamboangueña weightlifter finally conquered the Everest of the sporting world by winning the Philippines’ maiden Olympic gold in 2021.

Hidilyn Diaz’s landmark victory was that summer rain that watered the barren landscape of Philippine sports—a program that may have had produced the world’s greatest pro boxer and cue master of all time—but not Olympic consistency.

Finally able to win multiple medals since the 1932 edition, the Philippines became a fertile ground for the blooming of sports starting in 2021. It was a growth spurt like no other as it took only three years for a diminutive 24-year-old Pinoy to surpass the Philippines’ medal output, right on the same city where Nepomuceno planted the stars and sun a century prior with the dream that one day, the brown will be on top of the world.

That 21st century lad is gymnast Carlos Yulo, who took Paris by storm by dominating the 2024 Olympics men’s gymnastics vault competition on Sunday, earning him a second gold medal in a span of 24 hours.

Placing at an unexpected fourth place in the Tokyo vault final, where he was dislodged by Armenian Artur Davtyan by 0.017 points for the bronze medal, the floor exercise world champion Yulo, seemingly by happenstance in the qualification round, found a new pet apparatus which he could build a medal campaign for Paris.

Accomplishing his original dream of winning an Olympic gold on his favorite apparatus last Saturday, Yulo had an ax to grind with the vault apparatus as he was just a hairline away from medaling in 2020.

After three high scoring routines of at least 14.9 points from Ukraine and the United Kingdom’s best bets, Yulo scored a mind-boggling 15.433 points off a clean Dragulescu double pike, followed by a second run score of 14.800 points off a Kasumatsu double twist for a combined 15.116 points.

It was a bar too high for 2020s vault, which has been strictly regulated by the gymnastics governing body to ensure safety among vaulters, thereby making it harder to achieve a 15-plus score.

Not even Davtyan, the guy who dislodged Yulo from the Tokyo podium, could match the Filipino’s extremely difficult routines despite the Armenian’s clean execution.

Still, Davtyan (14.966 points) improved with a silver medal finish this time, but it was not enough to surpass Yulo’s commanding 0.15 points gap, which is sizeable in today’s gymnastic standards.

Harry Hepworth of the United Kingdom settled for the bronze medal with 14.949 points while his compatriot Jake Jarman, suffering a 0.1 point deduction for a fault on his first run, missed the podium with 14.933 points.

This historic performance has propelled the Philippines to 19th place in the medal table being led by China.

On top of boxers Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio’s sure medals in boxing, the ongoing Olympics is the best performance by the Philippines in its hundred year participation.

And we are not done as the likes of pole vaulter EJ Obiena, weighlifters Elreen Ando, Vanesa Sarno, and John Ceniza, and golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Malixi are yet to compete for medals this week.

All told, the weekend’s performances have placed Yulo, the first apparatus multi-gold medalist since Britain’s Max Whitlock in 2016, as the greatest Filipino athlete of all time, being the country’s only double Olympic gold medalist.

He will come home, not only with all the attendant material perks of being an Olympic champion, but, most importantly, as a national hero who has won the hearts of his kababayan.

* * *