From a dim Olympic debut in Tokyo, Filipino gymnastics star Carlos Yulo is now twice golden in Paris. 

As if the first gold medal that he won in the floor exercise finals on Aug. 3 weren’t sufficiently historic, Yulo ruled the men’s artistic gymnastics vault finals for his second gold on Aug. 4. The feat marks him as the first Filipino to win multiple gold medals in one Olympic tournament.  

“Unbelievable. God is really great and I’m so blessed by Him,” Yulo said when asked about his thoughts on his achievement and being called “the greatest Filipino athlete.”  

He has successfully avenged his 2020 Olympic vault finals performance in Tokyo, where he missed the bronze with his fourth-place finish. He was edged out of the podium by Armenia’s Artur Davtyan—the very gymnast who came second to him in the event finals in Paris. 

Defining 1st vault

Yulo’s opening vault proved to be the key to his historic second Olympic gold, notching an astounding tournament-high score of 15.433. The vault’s difficulty was valued at 6.000—one of the only two 6.000 vaults in the tournament—with an execution score of 9.433.

This first vault was also different from his qualification one, which was valued at 5.600 in difficulty. The Filipino commentators noted that this crucial upgrade was essentially what made the second gold happen, alongside Yulo’s outstanding form and near-perfect landing.

Yulo’s execution of the first vault even led Filipino commentator and gymnastics judge Joy Valenton to call the gold even before his second vault. “I’m smelling a double gold,” Valenton said in the live broadcast.

The Manila native performed a Ri Se-gwang II (RSG2) vault for his opener, which is a double front salto in pike position with a half twist ender. It is essentially a Dragulescu vault—which most of his competitors performed—but in pike position instead of the tuck position for the added difficulty value of 0.400. 

This specific vault was named after Ri Se-gwang, a retired North Korean artistic gymnast who went on to specialize in the vault apparatus after he first performed it live at the 2008 Asian Games in Doha. The 2016 Olympics vault gold medalist has two eponymous skills named after him, the other one being the original Ri Se-gwang. 

2nd vault seals deal

With such a high-scoring first vault, Yulo only needed a safer yet still solid closing vault, which he delivered.

He chose his trusted Kasamatsu double twist with a difficulty value of 5.6, for which he garnered a score of 9.200 in execution, for a total second vault score of 14.800. 

The 24-year-old’s execution score noticeably took a hit due to some minor mistakes and inaccuracies. One error pointed out by the commentators was the slight collapse in form near the end, when he bent his knees. Additionally, he did not land as well as in his first vault, making a huge step instead of keeping his feet together. 

The Kasamatsu vault is named after Shigeru Kasamatsu, a Japanese gymnast and Olympic gold medalist. Interestingly, Kasamatsu has never won an Olympic gold in the vault apparatus. He was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2006.

The winning total

Taking the average of his two vaults, Yulo posted a vault total score of 15.116—his highest vault average in the Olympics. 

His score immediately catapulted him to first place with four more gymnasts yet to perform. He replaced the then score leader, Great Britain’s Harry Hepworth who scored a stunning 14.949 average as the second performer, and never looked back. 

Being the last performer of the event, Davtyan was the ultimate decider of who would end up with the prestigious medals, especially the highly coveted gold. In the end, Davtyan fell short of dethroning Yulo but grabbed the silver medal with an incredible 14.966 vault average. 

Unfortunately for Filipino British gymnast Jake Jarman, he was kicked off the podium into fourth place, with his teammate Hepworth settling for the bronze. Jarman would have claimed a double-bronze medal finish following his podium finish in the floor exercise finals alongside Yulo.

Read more: Quest for gold: Gymnast Carlos Yulo seeks revenge in Paris