Carlos Yulo kicked off his redemption tour with an impressive performance in the men’s qualification in Artistic Gymnastics at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, tallying a total of 83.631 points and qualifying for three event finals on Saturday at the Bercy Arena.
Yulo had missed out on all the event finals in the previous edition of the 2020 Tokyo Games except for one, but this time he would not be denied three chances at an elusive Olympic medal.
The reigning Asian all-around champion will start his quest with the all-around final, slated for Wednesday, July 31, at 11:30 p.m. (Philippine time) against 23 other competitors, including reigning Olympic champion Daiki Hashimoto of Japan and China’s Zhang Boheng.
Determined to make up for his forgettable Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, Yulo aimed for clean execution this edition, starting with the apparatus he won a World title on back in 2019—the floor.
Known for his high difficulty on this apparatus, the Filipino gymnast opted for a relatively easier routine in the qualification and aimed for near-flawless execution. He scored 8.466 for a total of 14.766, good enough for second place behind the defending 2022 Commonwealth Games champion on the floor, Jake Jarman of Great Britain, who scored 14.966. This score will see Yulo into the floor final on Saturday, August 3, at 9:30 p.m. (PH time).
Vault, where Yulo won the second of his two World titles so far, proved to be one of his best events of the day with a score of 14.800 on his first vault—despite a step-out on his landing—and 14.566 on the second vault. He finished with an average of 14.683, placing him in sixth place and making the apparatus final on Sunday, August 4, at 11:25 p.m. (PH time).
In between the floor exercise and the vault came the two apparatuses that the 24-year-old product of Adamson University recognizes as his weaknesses. Still, Yulo managed respectable performances, scoring 13.066 on the pommel horse and 13.000 on the still rings.
Yulo then took on the parallel bars, where he has vastly improved over the past few years. Nonetheless, the Filipino star had to make some adjustments to his routine on the fly, finishing with 14.533 points, which was not enough to make the apparatus final but boosted his total score in the all-around.
The multiple-time SEA Games champion concluded with a rousing performance on the horizontal bar, scoring 13.466 and rounding out his qualification with no major hiccups this time around.
