Family tragedy of Southeast Asian Olympic hero

Carlos Yulo just made history as the first Southeast Asian athlete to win two Olympic gold medals, but he did not receive any congratulations from his mother.

Yulo shone brightly in Paris, with two gymnastics gold medals for the Philippines, in floor exercise and vault on two consecutive days.

However, many people were curious when the 24-year-old athlete’s Instagram page was filled with only pictures of him and his girlfriend, Chloe Anjeleigh San Jose, without any family members.

Carlos Yulo in the vault to win his second gold medal in gymnastics at the 2024 Olympics, at the Chapelle Gymnasium in Paris, France on August 4, 2024. Photo: Reuters

On the Facebook account of Carlos Yulo’s mother, Angelica Poquiz Yulo, there were no congratulations for the Southeast Asian Olympic hero. Angelica’s most recent congratulations were for Japanese athlete Shinnosuke Oka, who won the all-around gold medal, in which Yulo only finished 12th out of 24 athletes on August 1. “Japan is still really strong,” she wrote, receiving more than 109,000 interactions, mostly laughter and anger.

Angelica’s Facebook background is a photo of the Yulo family, minus Carlos, dated March 26, 2023, with the caption: “A family that sticks together stays together forever.”

In another post on June 27, 2024, she wrote: “I have loved you since you were in my womb, and that love grew even more when I first saw you. No matter how old you are, you will always be my babies,” and attached the accounts of her children Jorielgel Yulo, Karl Yulo and Elaiza Yulo, only Carlos Yulo was missing.

When a commenter asked if she was missing anyone, Angelica replied: “Who?”.

Yulo family profile photo, with Angelica wearing sunglasses, but without Carlos Yulo. Photo: FBNV

Carlos Yulo is the second child of Mr. Mark and Mrs. Angelica, along with his older sister Jorielgel, younger brother Karl and younger sister Elaiza. Mr. Mark works in the tourism industry, while Mrs. Angelica is a housewife.

Angelica’s last post mentioning Carlos was a birthday greeting in February 2023. Since then, she has frequently posted hints about the mother-son relationship. In August 2023, she posted a post alluding to Carlos, about his sacrifices such as quitting his job to stay home and look after his children, and his frustration at not being respected. “If you think your life is miserable because of the whole family, the problem lies with you.”

The Philippine newspaper PEP said that the conflict between mother and son Yulo was financial . Many people believed that Ms. Angelica had taken a lot of her son’s prize money without the 24-year-old athlete’s permission. To correct the information, Ms. Angelica gave an interview on August 4, as quoted by the newspaper, in which she denied this accusation.

She admitted to keeping her son’s bank passbook, but claimed that Carlos had filed an affidavit of loss to obtain a new copy of the passbook, and that the right to use the passbook belonged to him. She also said that Carlos had withdrawn 11 million pesos (4.8 billion VND) from his BDO Unibank savings account, not from the family.

She had control of Carlos’s Philippine Land Bank account since he was a minor, and she kept all the statements on her phone to release when needed. She also said she wanted to secure Carlos’s future by depositing a portion of his earnings into a BPI bank account under her name. But she would be penalized for withdrawing the money, so it remained.

Carlos Yulo (left) and his girlfriend Chloe. Photo: IGNV

The source of Yulo’s family conflict is said to have come from his girlfriend, Chloe Anjeleigh San Jose. Chloe is 22 years old, an Australian-Filipino vlogger with more than 460,000 followers on Facebook .

“The only thing that’s messed up is that girl,” Angelica said, referring to Chloe. “She’s making things worse. I know they want to be together, but we’re family too. If he wants to be with his girlfriend so badly, why does he need family?”

Carlos, 24, started gymnastics 17 years ago. In 2016, the Japan Olympic Association granted Carlos a scholarship to go to Tokyo to study literature at Teikyo University while also doing gymnastics. He was given an apartment in Tokyo so his family could stay when they visited, but he decided to stay with his girlfriend. Angelica did not want Karl to stay with Carlos and Chloe, because he was still a minor.

Two Olympic gold medals earned Yulo tens of millions of pesos in bonuses. He received a three-bedroom apartment worth more than 30 million pesos from a real estate company, 20 million pesos from government organizations, and a series of rewards from private companies in cash or in kind, such as lifetime buffet vouchers.

The Philippines has won three gold medals in Olympic history, the first of which went to weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz at Tokyo 2021. Southeast Asia has won a total of 23 gold medals, with only Yulo winning more than one.