Coachless gymnast Carlos Yulo receiving support from potential rivals
A sense of togetherness in the gymnastics community has seen the Filipino gymnast, who is without a coach less than five months from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, offer training facilities to the two-time World champion.
If Carlos Yulo was a pop star, he'd currently be managerless but collaborating with the best in his field around the world, working with different artists and producers to eke out the best of himself and gain inspiration for his next album due in July.
As it is, the Filipino is an artistic gymnast without a coach who is dropping into gymnasiums around the world to train with athletes of a similar calibre, eking out training tips from coaches at each stopover ahead of competing at Paris 2024, in less than five months' time.
But the difference is marked between the creative, collaborative popstar vibe and the competitive intensity of the head-to-head showdowns of elite sport.
And yet, there is also a togetherness of those who duke it out in high-level combative arenas, especially the Olympic Games, in which although competitors are pitched against each other in a gladiatorial context, support for each other is at its core.
Training days
When Yulo and his Japanese coach of seven years Munehiro Kugimiya went their separate ways in October, and veteran Tomoharu Sano then pulled out of heading to the Philippines to train Yulo due to an injury, the six-time World medallist found himself without a coach.
But an invitation in February to train short-term at the Republic of Korea gym of Tokyo 2020 Olympian Lee Junho and then at the British gymnastics centre at Lilleshall was accepted by Yulo, where he found himself alongside some of his likely rivals for a longed-for Olympic medal.
Yulo trained alongside the 2023 World vault champion, Jake Jarman, a likely contender in Paris for the floor and vault Olympic titles plus the all-around – should they both be selected by their National Olympic Committees – with the Brit now eyeing one of his competitors, the 2019 world floor champion, at close quarters.
And vice versa.
- As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
- Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
Head-to-head in Baku
Before the big Paris showdown though, Yulo and Harry Hepworth are competing at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics Apparatus World Cup in Baku with the finals taking place from 9-10 March.
The annual four-competition event has the added jeopardy this year of Paris 2024 qualification for those nations who have not yet secured a spot for the XXXIII Olympiad.
Great Britain has already secured a five-person team for the Games, courtesy of a podium finish at the 2022 World Championships, and Yulo has also qualified a spot for the Philippines via the 2023 World Championships, so this event is a chance to not only get their competitive juices flowing but also showcase their form to their National Olympic Committees (NOC) who are yet to officially select their gymnasts for Paris 2024.
Yulo is set to make his first appearance in the third edition of the 2024 Apparatus World Cup, and will be up against recent training partners Hepworth and the returning-from-injury Giarnni Regini Moran in Azerbaijan.
At the previous edition, in Cottbus, Germany, Yulo would have seen Hepworth, who made his senior international debut at the European Championships in Antalya last year, beat reigning World and Olympic floor champion Artem Dolgopyat of Israel.
Olympic year is hotting up.
Simone Biles welcomes overseas gymnasts to her gym
Yet opening doors to 'rivals' in collaboration and friendship is becoming more frequent in the world of gymnastics.
Ellie Black recently returned home to Canada from Canberra where she trained at the Australian Institute of Sport alongside the Antipodean team including Commonwealth Games all-around champion Georgia Godwin.
"Ellie + kangaroos = pure happiness 🦘💕" posted the two-time World silver medallist who headed overseas after struggling with injury and to revive her training practices.
Black also headed to the US, and to the gym of the greatest of them all – officially – Simone Biles, the history-making 23-time World champion.
"Thanks to @simonebiles for hosting me at your club," posted Black after training at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA).
"It was amazing to train with an athlete that breaks barriers for women in sport and inspires others through her gymnastics, her values, and prioritizing herself and her health. This is something I am striving to do more in 2024 and it was great to get some perspective from someone who can so closely relate."
Melanie de Jesus dos Santos, a potential superstar at her home Games in France, also headed to the WOGA gym in Texas where she gained invaluable advice not only on her routines but also about how to handle pressure. Biles, a seven-time Olympic medallist, certainly helped, but also Cecile and Laurent Landi, the coaches who helped Biles get there.
Such was the bond formed, that after celebrating with their own gymnasts at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp in October, Cecile and Laurent made a beeline for dos Santos who helped lead her team to a bronze-medal finish, marking the nation's first team medal at Worlds since it won silver in 1950.
They also qualified a full five-person team for their home Games.
"I'm super happy for Simone, super happy for Jos, the whole team," said Cecile of the US team who had just claimed an historic seventh-straight title, before adding: "And the French team. Melanie!"
Admitting she had half an eye on the French team who were finishing their competition on the dreaded beam, with dos Santos up last with the pressure of needing a clean routine to secure a medal for France, Cecile said: "I knew she needed a 13.2 something to get ahead of China and when I saw her hit I was like, they've got it. So super proud of her.
"That's huge... you know after the doubt they had not making Paris or anything, and to be third, I think they need that boost of confidence."
So yes, once athletes have achieved the dream of reaching the pinnacle of the high-intensity cauldron of an Olympic Games, there's rivalry, but also a feeling of togetherness in a sporting experience like no other on earth.