Beyond ‘Unlimited Ramen’: Re-storying the Philippines’ Double Gold in the 2024 Paris Olympics

Fame: Making Histories

The fame of Carlos Yulo draws attention to milestones in Philippine Olympics history. His win represents not only the country’s first Olympic medal in gymnastics but also its first gold prize by a male athlete, pushing the Philippines’ final medal standing at 37th globally and 1st in Southeast Asia.

Coincidentally, this historic win happens on the country’s centennial anniversary of participating in the Olympics. It was in Paris, France, where the Philippines first entered the games, sending its sole representative, runner David Ramos Nepomuceno, exactly 100 years ago.

David Nepomuceno holding the Philippine and United States Flag at the opening ceremony of the 1924 Summer Olympics. Image: Wikimedia Commons

In Southeast Asia, the Philippines is also the first to join the Olympics and the first to win a medal. Referencing fellow historian Ian Alfonso, Xiao Chua explained that Yulo’s win has greater historical significance that can be traced back from the exclusion of Philippine representation in the 1898 Treaty of Paris that sealed the sale of the country by Spain to the United States. The victory of Yulo reverses this very exclusion, with the Philippine flag raised and its national anthem sung in front of the whole world – a recognition withheld from the country more than a century earlier. 

Indeed, the historical perspective is critical. As the first-ever Filipino Olympics champion, weightlifter Hydilyn Diaz paved the way for a back-to-back Philippine gold win in two consecutive Olympic seasons. Yulo and his fellow athletes embody the progress made by the country in terms of the size, strength and success of its contingent, whose efforts and future achievements will make new histories for the Philippines to be cherished and not forgotten.

Fortune: Uneven Playing Field

Millions of pesos, real estate properties, free flights, lifetime colonoscopies, unlimited ramen and a host of other perks were offered as rewards to Yulo by government and private entities in the Philippines. Spectators describe this as excessive while international media outlets report it as ‘bizarre,’ and ‘insane.’ 

Nesthy Petecio, Carlos Yulo and the rest of the Philippine delegation arrives at the Villamor Airbase after their 2024 Summer Olympics stintImage: Wikimedia Commons

A UK-based Filipino scholar commented that these types of remarks can be condescending. especially for less-resourced countries and athletes from the Global South. Why patronising? First, because the playing field is uneven. With fewer sources of support and capital, Global South athletes struggle to access world-class training. Hence, getting the gold is simply not a big deal: it becomes heroic. In the case of Yulo, he is, after all, a two-time Olympic champion – a feat achieved in one season – for which he deserves having his prize doubled. And second, the Olympics is a platform for international recognition. Yulo's victory validates individual excellence in as much as it satisfies collective sentiment to be seen on a global stage. It addresses national longing for representation in international arenas where Filipino stories, talents, and identities are often overlooked.  

Back to rewards, the outpouring of generosity, while a fine expression of Filipino solidarity, raises other important questions. First is on sincerity when it comes to Filipino support of its athletes. More often than not, athletes are invisible until they achieve something remarkable, where at this point, their hardships become romanticised. It is not clear, for example, whether the companies who rewarded Yulo are willing to invest in novice athletes too. Relatedly, there is evidence of resources, while limited, can be mobilised. How can the case of Yulo push Filipino athletes to dream bigger while demanding greater support? 

How can this usher in a new era in Philippine sports? 

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. honored 22 Filipino Olympians in a solemn ceremony at Malacañan Palace, where he awarded a total of PhP50 million in cash, Medals of Merit, and Presidential Citations. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Family Feud: Politics of Storytelling

News about Carlos Yulo’s feud with his mother also reeks of the ethical implications of media sensationalism and responsible reporting. Not long after his win, it was reported the two began feuding over his mother’s management of Yulo’s finances, as well as her disapproval of his girlfriend, a content creator on TikTok.

What will Philippine society gain from the sensationalised reportage of the exchanges between Carlos and his mom, Angelica, at the expense of eclipsing the radiance of the Olympian’s historic feat for Filipinos? At best, it opened conversations about the value of children’s utang na loob (debt of gratitude) to their parents versus the children’s need for independence from their families when they reach the age of majority. The heated opposing comments from the audience on this news show the issue’s sensitivity and resonance. While it may be an important issue, the media’s sensationalised coverage was untimely. It deflected the limelight on this family drama from sports-related issues such as government support for athletes. 

Ramon Tuazon, secretary general of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), highlighted that audiences are over-entertained but under-informed. This lack of information literacy brings to the fore the chicken-and-egg debate about the media’s role in audience engagement. Should the media actively assume social responsibility to provide a discourse platform where audiences create informed opinions and decisions about key social issues versus feeding into the audiences’ preferences for gossip, and controversial, personal stories of public figures? The former is the ideal, as informed audiences or citizens can contribute more significantly to topics that have policy implications for social good. However, the latter has been overwhelming and dominant, as news media organisations had to contend with the business challenge of competing for the audience with a short attention span, often manifested by their aimless scrolling through social media. 

Social media is impacting how audiences take in information. Image: Unsplash

Social media platforms have been an agora of all sorts of entertainment news—the more controversial and emotional the better. As clickbait and snackable content are a norm to attract audience attention, many news media organisations have gone down the rabbit hole of entertaining the audience, setting aside its crucial role of developing a critical mass that can make intelligent decisions about salient issues of national significance and, in this case, proactively elevating the quality of athletic performance. 

By reframing the narratives of fame, fortune and feud, we envision a future where the stories of Filipino athletes like Yulo are told in ways that reflect on the virtues of resilience, national pride and the tensions in between. 

This requires transformation in thinking and advocating – one that values the journey as much as the victories.

Renz Alinabon, Joeven Castro and Sarah Jane Lipura, PhD are members of the Philippine Studies Network, Aotearoa New Zealand (www.philstudies.org.nz). Their views are their own.

Asia Media Centre