Yulo and Diaz in Paris: 100 years in the making

It was a golden moment, one whose luster may never ever fade.

The sight of Olympic gold medalists Carlos Yulo and Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo posing for pictures—and taking selfies—in front of the Eiffel Tower on Aug. 8 provided a fitting end to the Philippines’ most successful and historic Olympic campaign ever.

The moment was caught on camera, but Yulo and Diaz made it meaningful. She captioned the photo on Instagram with the message: “I am proud of you, and I will always pray for you.” Yulo, who won two gold medals in the floor exercise and vault finals in men’s artistic gymnastics, returned the favor, profusely thanking his “Ate Hidz” (elder sister Hidilyn), and saying, “you’re really an inspiration.”

A footage of the encounter between the only two Filipino Olympians to ever win gold, which was broadcast by One Sports, provided us with other telling details. Diaz was moved by her reunion with Yulo, this time in Paris, and was fighting back tears as she embraced him.

Yulo reminisced about their stint in the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, when Diaz won gold in weightlifting, achieving a feat that earlier Filipino Olympians had tried but failed to achieve. “She showed me the medal, and I told myself, ‘Next time, it would be me. Ako rin, kaya ko rin, next time.’” He repeatedly credited Diaz for inspiring him to reach for the stars.

“I’m so proud of you that you’ve overcome all the challenges. You did it! Congratulations,” said a teary-eyed Diaz, who appeared in Paris not as a contender but as a “proud Ate” and cheerleader for the 22 athletes comprising the Philippine Olympic centennial team. Adding luster to our Olympic medals are bronze medalists Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas, and the equally heroic feats of other Filipino Olympians.

The fact that it took a century for the Philippines to win two gold medals in a single Olympics made these feats even more meaningful. But these also dramatize the difficulties that our own Olympians faced just to bring glory to our nation.

“Faster, Higher, Stronger—Together.” Eiffel, built for the World’s Fair in 1889, also marked the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. By hosting the 2024 Olympics, France also marked the centenary of the Paris Olympic Games, which it earlier hosted in 1924. Eiffel is one of the most recognizable structures in the world. Gustave Eiffel designed and built the tower, and the French engineer also served as the architect of the Statue of Liberty’s metal frame in New York.

The Eiffel Tower is a sight to behold, if you’re willing to spend time in it if you’re in Paris. Without the tourist crowds, it can be a place of serenity. If you can climb 674 stairs to reach the second floor and then take the elevator, a feeling of euphoria sets in once you reach the top. Looking down over any structure in this “city of love” will give you the impression that humans can accomplish anything. In a way, impossible is a word that doesn’t really exist, if you work hard enough.

The picture of Yulo and Diaz with Eiffel in it had an extra significance. The tower was the tallest in the world when it was finished in 1889. The tower has immortalized their golden achievements, for themselves and their country, which happily happens to be our country. The official motto of the Olympics—“Faster, Higher, Stronger—Together”—has become synonymous with Eiffel during the Paris Olympics, and this messaging may be deliberate.

Photograph of revelation. In “The News: A User’s Manual” (2014), nonfiction writer Alain de Botton highlighted the power of images to elevate our level of consciousness, enriching “our otherwise deficient and prejudiced pictures of reality.” He talks about the image serving the function of corroboration, which is a category that only “adds an extra layer of proof” to news stories and is “less useful than the other category.”

Yulo and Diaz’s pictures with Eiffel belong to another category—a rarer kind of image. De Botton describes this image as a “photograph of revelation, whose ambition is not simply to back up what the text tells us but to advance our level of knowledge to a new point. It sets to challenge cliché.”

Their stand-alone “photographs of revelation” display not only the jubilant moods of the two Olympians, the two gold medals that Yulo was showing to the news photographers, but also the context that Eiffel provides: Greatness knows no bounds.

It’s high time for us, those working in news media, social media influencers, and netizens, to treat images as stories in themselves, not just as an adjunct to the text. The 24/7 news cycle and constant notifications from apps and social media accounts have made news readers jaded. De Botton is right: “We have lost the sense of photography’s potential as an information-bearing medium, as a force with a crucial job to do in terms of properly introducing us to a planet that we keep conceitedly and recklessly assuming that we know rather well already.”

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For comments: mubac@inquirer.com.ph