Early career Yulo started competing in 2008, The following day, he won the silver medal in the
floor exercise, with a score of 13.325 with Marc Capistrano of
Calabarzon taking first. Yulo stated that his second and fifth place finishes encouraged him to train harder for his next Palarong Pambansa. He was also part of the men's team, where they placed fifth. The following year, he competed in the same competition in
Dapitan,
Zamboanga del Norte. He earned gold medals in the team event, individual all-around, floor-exercise, and vault. In 2012, he competed in the Palarong Pambansa in
Lingayen,
Pangasinan, and took part in every event. He won the gold in the individual all-around, floor exercise, and vault, as well as the team competition along with his teammates. The same year, he went to China alongside gymnast Jan Gwynn Timbang, for training after a sponsorship by the Philippine Good Works Mission Foundation given to the GAP. The training served as a bid for them to qualify for the
2014 Youth Olympics in
Nanjing, China. In 2013, Yulo competed in his last
Palarong Pambansa, which was held in
Dumaguete City,
Negros Oriental. He won golds in the team event, individual all-around, and floor exercise, and took a silver in the vault behind Martoni Abana. In the same year, Yulo met his eventual coach,
Munehiro Kugimiya, when Japanese trainers went to the Philippines to help train the national team.
Junior As a junior, he was coached by
Aldrin Castañeda. He then competed at the
2014 Pacific Rim Championships, finished sixth on the floor exercise and eighth on the
vault. In 2015, he competed at the International Junior Competition held in
Yokohama, Japan, and won a bronze medal in the vault final behind Youth Olympic medalists
Giarnni Regini-Moran and Yue Ma. In 2016, Kugimiya became Yulo's coach, and the MVP Sports Foundation started extending financial aid to his career the following year. He also received a scholarship from the
International Gymnastics Federation to fund his move to Japan. Yulo won five medals at the
2016 Pacific Rim Championships, gold on floor exercise and vault, silver on the
still rings and parallel bars, and bronze in the all-around. Days before the 2017 Junior Asian Championships, he twisted his left ankle while training on the floor exercise. Despite the injury, he still competed, but he was limited to the still rings,
pommel horse, and parallel bars. He qualified for the parallel bars final and won the gold medal. He only competed on the vault and floor exercise at the 2017 International Junior Competition because of a shoulder injury. He won the gold medal in the vault final and the silver medal in the floor exercise final.
Senior 2018: Senior international debut and first World Championship medal Yulo made his senior international debut at the Melbourne World Cup and won a bronze medal on the vault. Then, at the Baku World Cup, he won a silver medal on the vault. At the Doha World Cup, he won a silver medal on the floor exercise — his third international medal in the span of one month. At the
2018 Philippine National Games, held in
Cebu City, Cebu, he won every individual gold medal. At the
2018 Asian Games, he scored highest on the floor exercise in the qualification round. However, in the
event final he fell on his third tumbling pass and finished seventh. At the
World Championships in
Doha, Yulo advanced to the all-around and floor exercise finals, becoming the first Filipino gymnast to qualify for a World Championships final. He was the youngest of the 24 competitors in the all-around final, and he finished 23rd. He won bronze in the floor exercise, becoming the first Filipino and the first male Southeast Asian gymnast to win a medal at the World Championships. After the World Championships, he competed at the Cottbus World Cup and won a bronze medal on the floor exercise after losing an execution score tiebreaker to
Casimir Schmidt. In December, he won silver medals on the vault and parallel bars at the Toyota International.
2019: First World title Yulo began the 2019 season at the
Melbourne World Cup where he won the gold medal on the floor exercise by 0.066 points. He missed the Baku World Cup due to a chest injury. He then won a bronze medal on the floor exercise at the Doha World Cup. At the
Asian Championships, he placed fourth on the floor exercise and vault and seventh on the parallel bars. He tied for the gold medal on the floor exercise at the All-Japan Senior Championships with
Kōhei Uchimura. At the
World Championships in
Stuttgart, Yulo qualified for the all-around final and secured qualification to compete for the
Philippines at the
2020 Summer Olympics in
Tokyo. He then placed tenth in the all-around final with a personal-best all-around total. In the floor exercise final, he won the gold medal, making history as the first Filipino and Southeast Asian world champion in artistic gymnastics. After his win, his below average height of 4 feet 11 inches (1.50 m) made him an example by the
Senate of the Philippines as a "wake-up call for our government" to provide more support for sports where height is not considered as a determinative factor. After the World Championships, he competed at the
Southeast Asian Games and finished on the podium in every event. He won gold in the all-around and floor exercise, and silver in the pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar.
2020–21 Most international competitions in 2020 were canceled or postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Yulo returned to competition in September 2020 at the All-Japan Senior Championships and won a bronze medal on the vault. He also won the vault bronze medal at the All-Japan Championships in addition to a bronze medal on the floor exercise. Yulo began the Olympic season by winning a bronze medal on the parallel bars at the
All-Japan Event Championships. He then represented the
Philippines at the 2020 Summer Olympics, hoping to become the country's first Olympic champion in any sport. During the
qualification round, he fell on his first tumbling pass and failed to qualify for the floor exercise final. He also struggled on several of the other events and missed the all-around final. However, he did qualify for the
vault final in sixth place. As the youngest competitor in the vault final, he finished in fourth place, missing the bronze medal by 0.017 points. After the Olympic Games, Yulo competed at the All-Japan Senior Championships and won a gold medal on the floor exercise and a bronze medal on the vault. He then competed at the
2021 World Championships in
Kitakyushu, Japan. He qualified for both the floor exercise and parallel bars finals in first place, and he also qualified for the vault final. He only finished fifth in the floor exercise final after stepping out of bounds. He then won the gold medal in the vault final and a silver medal in the parallel bars final behind China's
Hu Xuwei.
2022 At the
Southeast Asian Games, Yulo led the Filipino team to a silver-medal finish behind Vietnam, and he won the gold medal in the all-around. Then in the event finals, he won gold in the floor exercise, still rings, vault, and horizontal bar, and he won a silver medal on the parallel bars. He won his first-ever senior continental championships title when he clinched the gold medal at the floor exercise of the
Asian Championships in Doha after taking silver in the individual all-around. He followed this up with gold medals in the vault and parallel bars. Yulo competed at the
World Championships in
Liverpool and qualified for the all-around, floor exercise, vault, and parallel bars finals. He was also the second reserve for the still rings final after finishing tenth in the qualification round. In the all-around final, he finished in eighth place due to mistakes on the pommel horse, vault and horizontal bar. He then fell in the floor exercise final and finished seventh. The next day, he won the silver medal in the vault final behind Armenia's
Artur Davtyan, and he also won a bronze medal in the parallel bars final.
2023 Yulo began the season at the
Cottbus World Cup and won a bronze medal in parallel bars. Then at the World Cup in Doha, he won gold on the floor exercise, silver on the parallel bars, and bronze on the vault. He then won two gold medals at the Baku World Cup, on the vault and parallel bars. At the
Southeast Asian Games, he led the Philippines team to a silver-medal finish behind Vietnam, and he defended his all-around title. Then in the event finals, he won the gold on parallel bars and the silver on still rings. Yulo competed at the
Asian Championships and won a silver medal in the all-around behind Japan's
Shinnosuke Oka. He won three gold medals in the event finals on floor exercise, vault, and parallel bars, and he won a bronze medal on the horizontal bar. After the Asian Championships, Yulo parted ways with long-time coach Kugimiya due to personal reasons. The separation was cordial with Yulo expressing gratitude to the Japanese coach a year later. He went back to Castañeda, who coached him as a junior. Yulo chose to not compete at the
2022 Asian Games (postponed to 2023), which were being held at the same time as
World Championships. During the qualification round of the
World Championships, Yulo fell onto his back on his still rings dismount, and he also crashed his vault and was given a score of 0 for not landing feet-first. He finished last out of the 91 gymnasts who competed in the all-around. However, he still qualified for the floor exercise final where he finished fourth. As the highest-ranked gymnast on floor exercise who had not already qualified through the team or all-around competitions, Yulo
qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games.
2024: Olympic champion titles (left) and
Nesthy Petecio (right) holding their medals at a parade after the 2024 Summer Olympics Tomoharu Sano was to replace Kugimiya as Yulo's new coach but withdrew from the role. Instead in February 2024, Yulo trained with
Lee Jun-ho in South Korea and
Jake Jarman in
Lilleshall, England. Yulo began the 2024 season with a bronze medal on the floor exercise at the
Baku World Cup. Then at the Doha World Cup, he won a gold medal on the parallel bars and a silver medal on the vault. He won his first continental championship all-around title at the
Asian Championships in
Tashkent. He won three more gold medals in the event finals, on floor exercise, vault, and parallel bars. During the
qualification round of the
2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, he qualified for the
men's individual all-around,
vault, and
floor. He first competed in the individual all-around final on July 31, placing 12th overall with a total score of 83.032 points. On August 3, he competed in the men's floor exercise final and placed first with a score of 15.000 points. He became the first Filipino man and first Filipino gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal; he is the second Filipino ever to win an Olympic gold medal, after
Hidilyn Diaz's victory in the
women's 55 kg weightlifting event in Tokyo. The following day, Yulo won his second gold at the Games in the
vault, scoring 15.116 points to become the Philippines' first-ever multiple-time Olympic champion. As a result of his Olympic achievements, the government and other private entities pledged numerous incentives for Yulo, including but not limited to residential properties. After the 2024 Summer Olympics, Yulo announced that he would take a break and will not be taking part in tournaments for the rest of the year. The
Gymnastics Association of the Philippines expressed plans to hire a foreign coach for Yulo and other gymnasts, intending to send a gymnastics team for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. However in October 2024, it was decided that
Aldrin Castañeda will remain Yulo's personal coach. ==Personal life==