Carlos Yulo bringing back old ‘stunts’ to land Paris Olympics medal

Southeast Asian Games – Artistic Gymnastics – Olympic Marquee, Phnom Penh, Cambodia – May 8, 2023 Philippines’ Carlos Edriel Poquiz Yulo in action during the men’s qualification REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

Carlos Yulo has mapped out a calendar that he feels could at least land him a medal in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Holed up in his bailiwick in Manila for quite some time, Yulo will set up training camps in multiple countries weaved in between three tournaments scheduled in his buildup for the Games from July 26 to Aug. 11.

“My body needs to adapt to different types of environments, learn their (other gymnasts’) styles and find out the elements that I need to add to my routines,’’ said Yulo in Filipino.

Prior to the Baku, Azerbaijan, leg of the 2024 Apparatus World Cup Series on March 3 to March 10, the Tokyo Olympian will train in South Korea for two weeks beginning this month and has likewise scheduled training in the United Kingdom.

‘Upgrading my movements’

Carlos Yulo, whose world titles came in 2019 Stuttgart, Germany, (floor exercise) and 2021 Kitakyushu, Japan, (vault), is dead set on enhancing his stunts in these apparatuses apart from the all-around and parallel bars.

“These are the events that I’m giving much importance to. I devote more time to upgrading my movements in them. I have to be better from my previous tournament and learn from it,’’ he said.

With Aldrin Castañeda as his interim coach following his split with long-time Japanese mentor Munehiro Kugimiya, the 4-foot-11 dynamo is trying to insert a few stunts of his own while keeping some of the movements that he learned from Kugimiya.

“I have an assignment for the coming Olympics. I would love to try new challenges in my routines and attempt to bring back the difficult stunts for higher scores,’’ said Carlos Yulo.

“It will be quite risky considering what these movements can do to my body, but I’m willing to prepare for it regardless of the situation,’’ added Yulo, who missed the podium in his Olympics debut in Tokyo 2021.

In the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Yulo qualified for the Olympics floor exercise event but missed the Olympic berth in the all-around after placing 59th.

Yulo also enlisted in the Doha, Qatar, leg of the Apparatus World Cup Series on April 17 to April 20 and the 2024 Asian championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the following month before the qualification ends in June.

Apart from the South Korea and UK camps in between tournaments, the 23-year-old from Leveriza, Manila, is planning to train in Australia as well before or after the Asian championships.