Yulo in form to win 2 Olympic gold medals

MANILA, Philippines – If Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) president Cynthia Carrion is to be believed, Caloy Yulo has a strong chance of capturing not just one gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics, but two.

“If he (Yulo) performs the way he’s training, he’ll win the gold. And so far, he’s doing everything properly,” said Carrion during Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum.

Carrion said Yulo, who has been training in Japan for four years now, has become stronger not just in his pet event, the floor exercise, but also in vault and parallel bars.

“He’s doing very well. What I want and we’re working on it is that he will win the gold in the floor exercise, win a silver in the vault and make the finals in parallel bars,” said Carrion. “He’s also doing well in the high bar.

“The only two he’s not doing well are the pummel horse and rings.”

If the 21-year-old Yulo could strike gold in Tokyo, he would end the country’s long search for an elusive Olympic mint.

But he would need to come through with a near perfect performance to achieve the feat.

“He’s done triple backflip, and he turns forward twice and lands very well in training. If he could do it in the Olympics, he’s got the gold,” said the former Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) board member. “That’s the top skill his Russian rival tried to do but he went out of bounds the last time.”

Yulo has become a Tokyo Games gold favorite after ruling the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany two years ago.

And adding a couple of apparatus events where Yulo has a legitimate medal chance should help bolster the 19-strong Philippine team seeing action in the quadrennial event.