Netizens shared a viral video supposedly showing gymnast Carlos Yulo’s tumbling performance in the 2024 Paris Olympics. The claim is wrong. It was an Azerbaijani gymnast in the video taken in Portugal last April.
A version of the video, posted on Facebook Reels (FB) on August 6, had a caption that read: “Golden performance from Carlos Yulo 🥇Wow, 😳😯😱👍🏻👏🙌 Sobrang galing (Very good)”
The video actually shows Azerbaijani gymnast Tofig Aliyev doing a tumbling pass during the men’s tumbling team event at the 29th Trampoline European Championships held at Guimarães, Portugal on April 5, 2024.
Tumbling, an acrobatic execution of rolls, twists, handsprings, or somersaults on the ground, is not among the sports included in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Rappler has also debunked other copies of the erroneous video.
On August 6, European Gymnastics, one of the five continental unions in the International Gymnastics Federation, posted the highlight reel of Aliyev in its official Facebook page.
Another video angle confirms that Tofig’s performance – misconstrued as Yulo’s – happened during the men’s tumbling team event where Azerbaijan won gold, and not during the individual men’s tumbling event where Tofig won silver.
View the video infographic below to see the full context.
“Di naman yan si Carlos Yulo (That’s not Carlos Yulo),” some netizens on TikTok pointed out. Others in the comments section incorrectly guessed that the athlete in the video is either Brazilian, Portuguese, or Yulo’s younger brother, Eldrew.
Shared by two netizens on Facebook, the video with a false claim has garnered 5,894 interactions on the platform. On TikTok, it appeared on July 29 and 30 and garnered 36,777 interactions, days before Yulo won two Olympic gold medals for men’s vault and men’s floor exercise.
The 24-year-old gymnastics champion is the first Filipino double Olympic gold medalist. Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz gave the Philippines its first Olympic gold medal during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
