Carlos Yulo, Alex Eala named PSA’s top athletes for 2025

Gymnastics superstar Carlos Yulo and tennis sensation Alex Eala have been named the 2025 PSA Athletes of the Year, sharing the spotlight for their groundbreaking international achievements as they represent the Philippines on the world stage.

The pair will be honored during the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Annual Awards Night, rescheduled to February 16, 2026, at the Diamond Hotel Manila, with San Miguel Corporation as the event’s major partner.

This is the first time in 22 years that the PSA has named co-Athletes of the Year, with the last joint honor going to Manny Pacquiao and Jennifer Rosales in 2004.

“Their exemplary performances on the international stage, and more importantly, the way they have inspired countless young athletes to chase their own path for greatness, are enough reasons to crown both Alex and Carlos as the year’s top performers in sports,” said Francis Ochoa, PSA president and sports editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Yulo, 25, earns the PSA’s highest individual honor for a second straight year following a historic double-gold performance at the Paris Olympics. He added to his dominance in Asian gymnastics with a fourth consecutive gold in floor exercise at the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships in South Korea last June. He also captured three bronze medals in parallel bars, vault, and individual all-around.

In October, Yulo returned to the global stage at the 53rd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, winning gold in vault and bronze in floor exercise—his third world title and sixth overall World Championship medal.

Eala, 20, becomes the first Filipina to receive the PSA Athlete of the Year award in over two decades. A product of the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain, she broke multiple records in 2025 that redefined the landscape of Philippine tennis.

Her breakout came as a wild card in the WTA 1000 Miami Open, where, ranked just No. 140, she shocked former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, reigning Australian Open winner Madison Keys, and five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek, then ranked world No. 2, to reach the semifinals.

Though she bowed out to American Jessica Pegula, the run catapulted her into the international spotlight and set the tone for a year of milestones.

Eala later became the first Filipino in the Open Era to play in the Wimbledon singles main draw, claimed her first WTA singles title at the Guadalajara 125 Open in Mexico, and secured a historic US Open win by defeating 14th seed Clara Tauson.

She capped her season with a gold medal in women’s singles at the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok—ending the Philippines’ 26-year tennis gold medal drought in the regional meet.