Carlos Yulo won two gold medals in the artistic gymnastics while Aira Villegas copped a bronze in her Olympic debut in Paris 2024
Carlos Yulo and Aira Villegas, who accounted for three of the Philippines' four medal haul in Paris 2024, have been tasked to carry the country's flag in the quadrennial meet’s closing ceremonies on Sunday, Aug. 11 (Monday, Aug 12, Philippine time).
They will bear this honor following their astounding performances in artistic gymnastics and boxing, respectively, in this edition of the Olympics.
Nesthy Petecio accounted for the other bronze medal of the country. Still in action for the Philippine contingent are Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina in women's golf individual stroke play.
Nearly a week ago, Yulo delivered double golds in a historic feat that made him just the first Filipino athlete to do so in the Games.
His victory in floor exercise and vault also allowed him to hike the country's total gold medal tally to three after Hidilyn Diaz broke through in weighlifting in Tokyo three years ago.
Yulo, the country's first medalist in artistic gymnastics, also joins Diaz (silver, Rio 2016), Teofilo Yldefonso (two bronzes from Los Angeles 1932 and Amsterdam 1928) and later, Petecio (silver, Tokyo 2020), as the country's multiple Olympic medalists.
The 24-year-old pride of Leveriza, Malate wound up 12th in the all-around finals.
Meanwhile, Villegas finished third best in women's boxing 50kg last Wednesday.
The 29-year-old pugilist impressed in her first three matches against Morrocco's Yasmine Mouttaki (Round of 32), Roumaysa Boualam of Algeria (Round of 16) and hometown bet Wassila Lkhadiri (quarterfinals), but was halted by Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu in the semis.
Still, Villegas added another mint to the country's impressive total medal tally for boxing after Jose Villanueva (bronze, LA 1932), Anthony Villanueva (silver, 1964 Tokyo), Leopoldo Serantes (bronze, Seoul 1988) Roel Velasco (bronze, Barcelona 1992), Onyok Velasco (silver, Atlanta 1998) and Eumir Marcial (bronze, Tokyo 2020), Carlo Paalam (silver, Tokyo 2020) and Petecio.
Marcial and Paalam also saw action in Paris, with the former suffering a surprise exit in the first round and the latter bowing out in the quarterfinals.