In a way, Carlos Yulo’s second gold medal at the Paris Olympics became a liability of sorts. One gold, the first by a Southeast Asian at this edition of the games, was huge in and of itself. It would guarantee that his name would ring a bell for several weeks in the international sporting community. But two golds? That brought down the Bercy Arena. He became a living legend in an instant. In Tokyo 2020, the Philippines waited for one century for Hidilyn Diaz to win the nation’s first ever gold medal at the games. Then came Yulo, who brought for the Philippines not just one, but two of the item. The event, then, was epic.
Coverage of the news understandably became frenzied. There was the blonde-haired girlfriend greeting the new toast of the town in Paris. Then there was the afternoon drama of the Yulo Family’s internal discord, with some details around its monetary origins. But over the weeks what really became a favorite topic for the public, as covered too by the press, were the jaw-dropping rewards that Yulo stood to reap as a result of his Olympic feat. We learned that he would get – a condo unit, a lifetime supply of food and other services, a band’s offer to perform free for his wedding, millions of cash, and a brand new SUV.
And then slowly, but surely, it appeared that the nation forgot the significance of what it all meant initially in the first place.
But this would be a huge mistake. Instead of focusing on the personal material rewards going Yulo’s way, perhaps we might all be better served if we used this moment for something closer to home. That is, use the lessons of the moment to somehow become a better Philippines. That we can still build a better society for all of us who share this nation. Because Yulo’s win is our win. But it is our win only if we can make the best use of it – if it can give us some direly needed reminders in these times.
First, Yulo’s win should remind us that, perhaps, we, as a people, are still very much in this larger game called nation-building. That all hope is not lost.
One would think the point of having Olympians in our midst as a people is to remind us: that we have it in ourselves, each of us, to be better. That day by day, we can conquer our own personal best.
We can draw inspiration from Yulo himself. Who was he? Carlos Yulo was a boy from our national capital who was born into modest means, but who made the most of the opportunities that were available to him. And with the bare minimum of a national sporting infrastructure that could support his growth, but with a lot of talent and passion for his cause, plus some crucial outside help, he achieved something big.
Perhaps we need that in the context of the kind of nation we have become over the past decades. A nation where an increasing portion of the population in recent years have identified as poor, and with the direness of the situation masked by seemingly loose official definitions of poverty. Perhaps we can still make the most of the existing functioning infrastructure, if barely, of our government and the other sectors of our society to, who knows, once and for all tackle the problem of national industrialization?
Perhaps then, as a people, we can aspire to get a gold medal in the subject of understanding national poverty with the aim of solving it? Perhaps then we can aspire to get a gold medal in crafting a nationally coordinated development policy with the backbone of redistributing societal wealth through correct taxes from the wealthy and massive social services for all?
Second, Yulo’s win should remind us that there is, after all, still one thing that we hold together in common – a common identity with, perhaps, a common dream – which is nothing but the success of this country.
We all have something in common with Carlos Yulo. It is the flag stitched on the garment that he wears every time he and our athletes compete on the global stage. It is the flag of a people who, to describe us as “having been through a lot” will be quite an understatement. And the point here is not to raise any kind of ethnic or blindly patriotic argument, but simply to recognize that, for better or worse, with the current international setup of the world being divided into countries implementing laws, we happen to live in one called the Philippines – named after some European royal who in whose honor the place was named by founding colonists. And though it is a country with many different regions and languages that those colonists suppressed, it is a country whose inhabitants are called now – Filipinos. And that it would be nice to see this general category of people, these Filipinos, succeed in something.
Because, of course, usually it is the easiest thing in the world to forget this identity, if not shun this identity altogether. Because again, in normal days, or those days when no Filipino is winning a medal at some international event, what really does being “Filipino” mean? What is our image in the international stage? We all know those are many things, with many of them not exactly flattering. But at least for these past few weeks the world can add “excellent athlete” to that image. Maybe with Yulo’s help, we can start recovering some of the pride, and use it as a stepping stone for even greater things – the way Yulo uses the springboard to jump so high and execute magic in vault competition.
Or, forget the international stage. Just look at things back home, and look at the way we have done even the theoretically most straightforward of projects supposedly for the benefit of our people, and find no success there. The jeepney modernization effort had the aim of replacing all our traditional jeepneys with better, more comfortable, lower emission vehicles. It had one problem – in the process, our officials seemingly forgot to give the fullest support to the small-time jeepney owners who stood to lose in the new arrangement, because for them modernization meant losing control of what little power they already had over their fate just to hand this over to “cooperatives” (a.k.a. big groups that are ultimately ruled by bigger transport industry players). One of the roots of the problem then is a seeming lack of a national approach to the issue, and the recognition that majority of the nation are in fact small-time folks.
As the great Conrado de Quiros once said, if it took a steady accumulation of national vices to make this kind of mess, then maybe all it would take is a steady accumulation of virtues to make a success. Maybe, infused with the sudden feeling of patriotism and national pride among our ranks, we can finally move this country forward.
But really, there is in Yulo’s Olympic triumph a lesson that should shine above everything else. And it is something that gets lost in the fixation over the material things that Yulo gained and continues to gain.
To understand that lesson, we might do well to go back to the whole point of why the Olympic games are held. “The original values of Olympism,” its website says, quoting from the Olympic Charter, “were to ‘encourage effort’, ‘preserve human dignity’ and ‘develop harmony.” They are now expressed as encouraging people to be the best they can be, with respect for others, and celebrating friendship. “This is the idea of setting your rivalries aside. There is more that unites us than divides us.”
And so, perhaps this is a good time to remind ourselves – that, even more grand than the grandness of individual achievement and personal success, there is in fact a unifying narrative of common achievement that is as good an aim to aspire to as any. That, in the end may be what's most important in life. Some might say it is the point of having lived itself – to have worked with others to see how far we can go as a people, together. Some might say this is in fact the only triumph that matters.
We do not live in this world forever. At some point, a great name like Yulo’s will be forgotten. Especially as we live in a world where the very foundations of civilizational existence are in severe challenge due to gargantuan existential threats, like climate change, environmental degradation and social inequality. At this point, it is debatable whether humanity will still have fully functioning societies centuries hence, some say less. Not to mention having many more future Olympic games.
And yet, as we go along with our daily lives, we seem to have become oblivious to the threats and the bigger picture. Every single day the agenda seems to be – beat your own personal best so that you can go on enriching yourself. This year, beat your own personal annual income from last year for the benefit of your own self, your own kids, your own family, your own clan. Think only of yourself.
This is the narrative that the coverage of the endowments for Yulo seems to promote – that the point of participating in the games are the rewards resulting from personal achievement. The narrative has suddenly become one of the age-old accumulation of personal riches for just one man. But of course it makes perfect sense. The Big Money showering him with these gifts all have a business stake in creating a world that makes people aspire – individually, for maximum revenue impact for their companies – for just these sorts of riches. Even if the picture of reality is far from what’s being advertised.
In fact the sudden attention from Big Business in Yulo’s name is curious, given the known general lack of support for Filipino athletes during all those times they were still struggling as unknown individuals – even from the private sector who apparently had all these money all along. Yulo’s biggest break himself came not when some major corporation decided to invest fully in his career. It came when an unknown Japanese instructor saw potential in him but that, recognizing the limits imposed by training facilities in the Philippines (or the lack of it), decided to bring Yulo to Japan. It is also a valid question to ask, as the private companies shower Yulo with gifts, what is the current state of their own employees? Are they religious in providing them with both statutory and non-statutory benefits? How are their labor policies? Can they, too, win gold medals in the way they treat their workers?
Carlos Yulo’s triumph should remind us of one very clear picture of our societies. It is one that, unfortunately for most of our citizens, does not in fact encourage them to be the best they could be. One where, in the daily drag of undignified long-hour commute to go to work, establishing friendship with fellow commuters might be the farthest from their minds. This is something that we seem to have lost. Which is understandable: as life in our country has taken a turn for the worse, our natural instinct has been to find ways on how our own personal families can survive day by day, and to apply our own individual solutions to the large-scale challenges. So that faced with the rising problem of traffic, our solution has been to accumulate more cars – something which the government fully supports. Faced with the rising problem of road rage due to traffic, apparently much of our solution has been to brandish guns to the face of the enemy. And in our most recent presidency before Marcos, an estimated 10,000 people were summarily executed, their lives taken without any semblance of due process – just because they were accused of being drug users. That is most certainly not the way to earn a gold medal in running a society in the eyes of the world.
Carlos Yulo’s win should remind us, in a way, that all our strivings, all our sacrifices, all our deepest desires for personal success – that these are nothing if these are not shared by us all. That real greatness in human life comes not, ultimately, in its individual form, but rather in the collective triumphs that we all share.
Let us use the Carlos Yulo moment to dream again. That we can still become a better Philippines. That we can still build a “better” society for us all. Let us use it to remind us that we are, in fact, perhaps a people who can move things forward, despite all the mountain of evidence to the contrary. Let us think that maybe we are not a hopeless nation. Maybe there is still hope. If one of from among us can do great things, maybe many others among us can, too.
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