MANILA, Philippines — Two Olympic medalists from the Paris Olympics are to carry the Philippine flag at the closing ceremony of the Games on Sunday (Monday, Philippine time).

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) announced on Saturday that double Olympic gold medalist Carlos Yulo and bronze medalist Aira Villegas will carry the flag of the country at the closing rites at the Stade de France.

Yulo, who took part in the men's artistic gymnastics events, is the country's first double Olympic gold medalist, while boxer Villegas won the bronze medal in the women's 51-kilogram category.

It is the first time that two Olympic medalists in an ongoing Olympic Games will get the flagbearer honors at the closing ceremony.

Boxers Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam were also the first Olympic medalists to carry the Philippine flag at the Games' opening ceremony, as they were both silver medalists from the previous Games in Tokyo. Petecio won a bronze medal at the women's 57-kg event in these Games.

Sunday's closing ceremony will see the Olympic flag passed to the city of Los Angeles, California in the United States, which had previously hosted the Games in 1932 and 1984.

Yulo pokes fun at himself

Meanwhile, Yulo made his first Instagram post since winning his two artistic gymnastics gold medals, but for the funniest reasons.

Joining a trend among aspiring gymnasts, on Saturday, Yulo posted the video of his fall at the pommel horse at the Paris Olympics, accompanied with the caption, "Unfortunately I was selected for the Olympics."

It was during the double champion's pommel horse routine at the Men's Individual All-Around that initially saw Yulo at the bottom of the standings, scoring a lowly 11.900 points.

He eventually finished 12th at the all-around event before winning his gold medals.

The video also appears on Yulo's TikTok handle, but was posted first before appearing on Instagram. The TikTok version currently has 3.2 million views.

His post came after that of American Olympic women's gymnast Sunisa Lee, showing her fall at the balance beam during the individual finals, finishing in sixth place. Lee posted a video on TikTok with the fall, also captioned, "Unfortunately I was selected for the Olympics."

Lee won a gold medal in the team all-around, and two bronze medals in the individual all-around and the uneven bars final.

Before Yulo and Lee, several netizens showed videos of themselves failing at attempts in sports, accompanied by a description that they were not selected in the ongoing Olympics.

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