THIS YEAR, the Philippines is taking home two gold and two bronze medals from the 2024 Paris Olympics, thanks to the talents of Carlos Yulo, Aira Villegas, and Nesthy Petecio.
The Philippines has been competing in each edition of the Summer Olympic Games ever since it debuted back in 1924, and Filipinos who have joined have proven time and time again that the Philippines is not a country to be underestimated.
As the Olympics finally comes to a close, the Philippines ranks 35th on the 2024 Olympics’s Medal Table, with China in the number one spot, followed by the USA in second, and Australia in third.
Performance at Olympics 2024
Now hailed as the first male Olympic gold medalist in the history of the Philippines, as well as the country’s second Olympic champion, Carlos Yulo is bringing home the gold for not one, but two categories in Men’s Gymnastics.
This year, Yulo took the top spot in both the Men’s Floor Exercise and the Men’s Vault in the Artistic Gymnastics category, which means that he has earned the most medals this season, also making him the first to win multiple medals in one edition of the Games.
The other two medals, on the other hand, both come from the Women’s Boxing Division.
The first is from Aira Villegas, who won a Bronze Medal in the Women’s Boxing 50 KG event. To ensure her victory, she won her match against France’s Wassila Lkhadiri but unfortunately lost to Turkey’s Buse Naz Çakıroğlu, thus ending her run at the Olympics.
Only a day later, Nesthy Petecio also bagged a bronze medal at the Women’s Boxing 57 KG event. While Petecio had won in her match against China’s Xu Zichun, she would later on lose in a close battle with Poland’s Julia Szeremeta, earning her a bronze medal at the games.
This makes her the country’s first two-time medalist in boxing, given that she won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics only three years prior to this.
She would later say that she was confused about her final standing.
In an interview with One Sports, she would go on to say: “Sobrang labo. Yun yung nakikita nila eh, so wala na tayo magagawa po. Wala siyang clear punches sa third round, tapos body shots and hooks ko, kumo-connect. Ewan ko, di ko pa alam ano nangyari.”
The Philippines, however, is proud of her, Villegas, and Yulo, regardless.
