MANILA, Philippines – Fresh from his World Championship feats, Filipino ace gymnast Caloy Yulo is now targeting an Olympic gold medal and a spot in the individual all-around finals in the 2024 Paris Games next.
“Next goals ko are to win a gold medal and make the finals of the individual all-around in the 2024 Paris Games,” said Yulo during Tuesday night’s online presser hosted by Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) president Cynthia Carrion.
Yulo, who copped a vault gold and a parallel bars silver in the World tilt in Kitakyushu, Japan just a few days back, said he has drawn inspiration from weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz’s historic golden effort in the Tokyo Games and needs to quench his thirst for an Olympic mint.
“Nakaka-inspire po si ate Hidilyn. Gusto ko yung ganung feeling, parang gutom, nakakainggit,” said the 21-year-old Southeast Asian Games gold medalist.
But Yulo would need time to heal his hurting left elbow after he revealed just Tuesday that he injured it following a fall during his horizontal bar training two months ago before he could achieve his goals.
Making the individual all-around finale though would have Yulo compete in six apparatuses, including horizontal bar, pommel horse and rings.
The other three are vault, parallel bars and floor exercise.
“Two months ago, na aksidente ako sa high bar, napabitaw po aklo then parang humampas po ako sa lapag tapos elbow ko sumakit sobra, hindi ko ma straight ng three weeks,” said Yulo.
“Wala naming baling buto, which is good. Muscles lang po, parang na overstretch kasi siya,” he added.
The injury forced Yulo to skip the other apparatuses in the Kitakyushu. He also admitted he would have participated in only vault and floor exercise if not for the help of his doctor in Japan.
“Dapat dalawa lang po talaga, pinilit lang namin po,” he said.