Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) president Cynthia Carrion assures Filipino sports fans that world champion gymnast Carlos Yulo is “fine.”

“Fake news!” Carrion said when asked about reports of Yulo’s hip injury that may put his Tokyo Olympics medal bid in peril.

“He’s fine,” the gymnastics chief told Rappler in a text message, and said in a separate interview that the injury is “not that bad.”

Carrion explained that the 4-foot-11 dynamo hurt his hip while practicing a triple-back and double-forward sequence.

“While he was doing the double forward, he got too close to the floor and kind of injured his hip, but the injury was not that bad,” Carrion said in an interview with One Sports.

Carrion further shared that Yulo just decided not to go on practicing that segment of the routine, and prioritized instead to be physically in top shape.

“It won’t affect him [in the Olympics]. It will only affect the skill that he practiced which is the triple back and double forward,” said Carrion.

Since winning the world championship in 2019, Yulo has been tipped to have strong chances of winnning the country’s first Olympic gold in his pet event, the men’s floor exercises.

Carrion said Yulo may even have a shot at ruling the individual all-around, noting that some sports officials said if the pint-size star “just keeps doing what he’s doing, he might even win apparatus overall.”

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Multiple Olympic medals possible for Carlos Yulo – PH gymnastics chief

The 21-year-old became Southeast Asia’s first world champion male gymnast in 2019 after securing the men’s floor exercises gold.

The Tokyo-based Filipino was also the most bemedaled athlete in the country’s hosting of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games with two golds and five silver medals.

He will begin his Tokyo Olympics campaign on Saturday, July 24, 6:30 pm, Philippine time at the Ariake Gymnastics Center, where he is bunched into the third individual all-around qualifying subdivision. – Rappler.com