Carlos Yulo of the Philippines went home without a medal after the conclusion of the 2026 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam. On October 25 Yulo placed seventh in the vault final. The day prior, he placed eighth in the floor exercise final.

Entering the competition, Yulo held consecutive vault titles from both the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and the 2026 Asian Games, in addition to his previous world championship victories in 2021 and 2025. He averaged 13.883 in the vault final to place seventh, scoring 13.333 on his first vault (an 8.033 execution score, minus 0.30 in deductions, and 5.600 in difficulty) and 14.433 on his second. Armenia’s Artur Davtyan captured the gold medal with a score of 14.850, while Jake Jarman of Great Britain secured silver at 14.650 and Norway’s Sebastian Sponevik claimed bronze with a 14.366.

Yulo was awarded a 0.10 stick bonus in the floor exercise final on October 24 but still received a 0.30 deduction, bringing his score to 13.233 and an eighth place finish.

After achieving historic results in the last couple of months, it was quite the shock to see the reigning Olympic champion leave the Netherlands without any hardware.

The schedule of competing at three elite events in one calendar year (Asian Championships, Asian Games and Worlds) is extremely physically and mentally demanding for an athlete, especially one who wants to peak at all of them. Regardless of the Rotterdam result, Yulo still has one of the most impressive 2026 resumes in men’s gymnastics.

Written by

Lakshya