TOKYO—The Tokyo Olympics will open on Friday and organizers remain firm on keeping fans away from the arenas.
That’s big deal to the 11,000 athletes expected for the next three weeks in these pandemic Olympics.
But not to the Philippines’s very own world champion gymnast Carlos Yulo.
“These Games are made for Caloy,” Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion told BusinessMirror as she waited for her flight to the Japanese capital along with 20 other members of the third batch of Team Philippine members on Sunday morning at Naia’s Terminal 1.
“As you very well know, Caloy is a very shy person. He performs better in a calm, silent environment,” Carrion said. “So with him doing his routines without spectators is very much to his advantage.”
In the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in Manila, Yulo won two gold medals in the all-around and his pet men’s floor exercise. He clinched five silver medals in pommel horse, rings, vault and the parallel and horizontal bars.
Those silvers though weren’t what were expected of a world-class gymnast like Yulo. But Carrion had an explanation.
“You know how it is with fans. Everyone was shouting ‘Caloy! Caloy!’ during his routines in the SEA Games and he was not built for that. He was not used to that,” Carrion said. “But through the years, Caloy has learned to filter the noise and learn to focus and concentrate. But in Japan, where there are no fans, that would be better.”
Carrion said that in the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, Yulo benefitted from being a “nobody” in that competition.
“Nobody knew him, so everyone was quiet. After his performance, everyone was stunned,” said Carrion, who revealed that her ward is now settled at the Tokyo Olympic Village.
Yulo ranked seventh in the finals and was a surprise package in the floor exercise, winning gold to punch an early ticket to the Tokyo Olympics.
“He’s really calm, but he’s ready physically, mentally and spiritually when I spoke to him yesterday [Saturday],” Carrion said.
She is confident Yulo could win gold in the floor exercise and, possibly, a silver in the vault or parallel bars.
Yulo opens his bid on July 24 in the qualification of the apparatus. The finals of the individual all-around, if he qualifies, will be on July 28.
The floor exercise finals will be on August 1, vault on August 2 and parallel bars on August 3 along with horizontal bar. The pommel horse and rings finals are slated on August 1 and 2.
“I’m the one who’s really nervous. Caloy, he’s just okay,” Carrion said.
Yulo has been in Japan over the last four years under Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya.
Both athlete and coach have developed a strong bond during all those years.
“I asked him [Kugimiya], how’s the weather in Tokyo, he told me, ‘mainit.’ He speaks Tagalog [Filipino] better than me now,” Carrion said.
The 4-foot-11 Yulo, a Teikyo University student, also speaks Japanese fluently.