Two brothers. One mat. A first for Philippine gymnastics.
Carlos and Eldrew Yulo take the floor on Sunday at the 54th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, and it’s the first time the siblings are competing side by side at the world championships level. Here’s what to know before they start.
The Basics: What’s the Competition?
The meet in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, runs October 17 to 25 and features 24 countries, with Olympic berths on the line for the top three teams. The Philippines isn’t fielding a full team, so the story here is individual: the Yulos are entered in the men’s all-around qualification and are aiming to reach apparatus finals. That is, the best eight gymnasts on each apparatus advance, and the best 24 all-arounders move on to that final.
The Rotation: The Yulo Bros Begin Their Campaign
The Yulos begin on the parallel bars, then move to the horizontal bar and floor exercise. After that come the pommel horse, still rings, and finally the vault. Translation: Carlos gets his floor routine early and saves his other favorite, the vault, for the end. That’s a nice way to finish.
Who’s Who: Just a Reminder, Of Course
Carlos Yulo, 26. He won two golds at the 2024 Paris Olympics and, at last year’s Worlds in Jakarta, took gold on vault and bronze on floor. He’s coming off a big Asian Games, where he won gold in floor and vault, but finished fourth in the parallel bars, his first apparatus on Sunday. Manila reports call him heavily favored in floor and vault. That’s a far cry from how he’s talked about this meet. Earlier this month he said he’s “not expecting anything” and wants to observe, since next year’s Worlds in Chengdu is the one that counts for the 2028 Olympics.
Eldrew Yulo, 18. This is his Worlds debut. He earned his spot by topping the World Cup floor rankings, winning his first senior gold in Antalya and adding bronzes in Cairo. At the Asian Games, he took bronze in the horizontal bar and finished seventh in floor. His bar work is worth watching. In Cairo, he scored 13.466 with a 4.900 difficulty routine. Carlos, for his part, calls their pairing “a good balance,” his focus against Eldrew’s relaxed approach.
What to Watch
- Carlos’s floor and vault. The difficulty and execution scores will tell us whether he’s peaking.
- The parallel bars. A fourth at the Asiad leaves room to improve, and it’s the opening event.
- Eldrew’s horizontal bar. A clean routine could put him in the apparatus final conversation.
- Qualification margins. Eight spots per apparatus is a tight field, and one fall can end a day.
