Dispensing — and enabling — dreams

WHAT A YEAR it has been for Carlos “Caloy” Yulo. He did the incredible and carry an entire country’s hopes on his shoulders — on the way to notching an unprecedented two golds in the Paris Olympics — and reap a resulting well-deserved windfall.

But even before he shot to greater prominence through his Olympic feat, Mr. Yulo was already a proud Global Team Toyota Athlete (GTTA) — under the mobility brand’s Start Your Impossible (SYI) program. This is Toyota’s first-ever global corporate initiative — inspired by Olympic and Paralympic athletes “who are constantly challenging their impossible.” SYI supports some 250 athletes from 49 markets worldwide. Caloy is one of two Filipino GTTAs, with champion para swimmer Ernie Gawilan being the other. Incidentally, in Asia, Toyota calls its GTTAs “dual heroes” because they are not only sports heroes but champions for doing social good as well.

When we were in Paris to catch the tail end of the Paralympics, we got to talk to both Caloy and Ernie. Even then, Mr. Yulo expressed how he envisioned giving budding athletes much-needed coaching, motivation, and support. Recently, he collaborated with Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) for the Start Your Impossible Gymnastics Camp held over the course of two days at the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) MVPSF Gym in Manila. The camp is part of the embodiment of this commitment to give back to the community, “aiming to inspire and empower young gymnasts by providing opportunities to help them become better athletes.”

Caloy enlisted the help of his own team, led by coach Aldrin Castañeda of GAP, not only to vet the participants but also to manage the warmup exercises and subsequent training of the 30 youngsters aged seven to 16 from Metro Manila, Davao, and Cebu. Caloy also sought the assistance of his own sports nutritionist Jeanette Aro to advise the kids and their parents on what constitutes a proper diet for these gymnasts.

So what’s next? I asked Caloy at a subsequent question-and-answer session. “We’re looking for those with potential, and we plan for them to continue training here more intensively,” he said in Filipino. “This clinic won’t mean anything without a next step for them. Even if I don’t get to train them myself, I look forward to training with them — to at least give them a program of training.”