Carlos Yulo made his first-ever individual all-around final in the Olympics count with a 12th-place finish, scoring 83.032 points on Thursday early morning (Philippine time) at the Bercy Arena.
The 24-year-old gymnastics star failed to match his best finish in a major tournament, which was an eighth-place ending at the 2022 World Championships in Liverpool, England. However, Yulo showcased some new tricks that he can carry into future tournaments.
It was fitting that the reigning Asian all-around champion finished in the apparatus where it all started for him: the floor exercise. Indeed, Yulo pulled off some cards from up his sleeves.
With a huge 6.600 difficulty score to start with, the 2019 Worlds champion in the said apparatus put on a show. Despite some small hops, he scored an impressive 14.333 points—a few clean-ups away from a solid routine.
Yulo’s day started bleakly. After a near-flawless take on the pommel horse, he suffered a deep plunge with a fall just when he was about to finish his dismount.
That stumble negated any improvements he made on the difficulty of his routine, ending with a score of 11.900, putting him in last place after the first rotation.
Yulo then topped his rotation in the still rings, but his score of 13.933 could not revive him from his place at the bottom of the standings.
Nonetheless, it gave him confidence moving forward, starting with two of his more favored apparatuses: the vault and the parallel bars.
Admitting to having some difficulties in executing the Ri Se Gwang, Yulo finally did during his vault routine of the day. Despite a huge deduction due to stepping out of bounds, his score of 14.766 was the best at that moment and boosted his standings 12 places higher into 12th.
His parallel bars routine scored identically to the qualifications after Yulo missed his connection again to a single-rail handstand.
Nonetheless, Yulo’s score of 14.500 in the parallel bars and a subsequent score of 13.600 in the horizontal bar boosted his stock heading into the floor exercise.
The 2023 Asian all-around champion Oka Shinnosuke—who pushed Yulo into silver that year—kept the all-around title with Japan with a score of 86.832.
China’s Zhang Boheng missed the Olympic title again with the silver, scoring 86.599, while compatriot Xiao Ruoteng ended with the bronze and a score of 86.364.
Yulo will look to bring his upgraded routines, but with cleaner execution, in the apparatus finals of the floor exercise and the vault.
The floor exercise medal round is set for Saturday, August 3, at 9:30 p.m., while the vault final happens the following day at 11:25 p.m.
