It was a year of firsts, of Olympic triumph, of broken curses, of finally winning the big one. The Philippine sports scene in 2024 was truly full of worthy heroes and heroines.
Philippine sports reached new heights in 2024, with unprecedented success in the Olympics and milestone wins in other disciplines. On the local front, there was no shortage of compelling stories of triumph and excellence.
Here are our picks for the top five Philippine sports stories of the year:
Carlos Yulo leads biggest Olympic medal haul
Without question, the biggest Philippine sports story for 2024 was gymnast Carlos Yulo’s Paris triumph. On the centennial of the country’s first participation in the quadrennial Games, Yulo became the first Filipino athlete to win two Olympic gold medals. That he did it in the same Olympics made the feat even more astounding.
But the Philippine delegation wasn’t done. Days after Yulo’s gold rush, boxers Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas added to the medal tally by winning a bronze each in their respective weight classes to give the country a 2-0-2 count, its best performance ever. The tally could have been higher if the breaks had just swung the way of golfer Bianca Pagdanganan and pole vaulter EJ Obiena, who both just barely missed a podium finish.
Yulo, Petecio and Villegas received a hero’s welcome upon their return, and were rightfully rewarded with untold prizes, both in cash and kind.
Gilas Pilipinas makes history twice
If you haven’t noticed yet, Asian basketball has gone through some changes in the past few years. No longer is Asian supremacy the exclusive domain of China and Iran. Japan was the highest-placed Asian team in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, while our very own Gilas Pilipinas won the Asian Games gold later that year. The Japanese even came very close to upsetting hosts France in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The gap between Asia and the traditional basketball powers has been shrinking, and Gilas Pilipinas is riding this wave. At the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Riga, Latvia, Gilas shocked the hosts, ranked sixth in the world, and their home fans with a convincing 89-80 win. It was the country’s first victory over a European team in FIBA competition in 64 years. They then gave Georgia all they could handle in a two-point loss, before losing a competitive match against Brazil in the semifinals.
In the ongoing FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers, Gilas again notched a historic win. They went unbeaten in four games this year, with one of those wins coming against New Zealand, the first time ever that the Philippines has beaten New Zealand in FIBA competition.
PMNFT makes football relevant again
Before the 2024 AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup (AMEC) kicked off, it had been a topsy-turvy year for the Philippine Men’s Football Team (or PMNFT, but I wouldn’t mind if we go back to just calling them the Azkals). When the calendar turned to 2024, the team did not have an official head coach. In February, Tom Saintfiet was introduced, bringing the promise of stability and continuity after years of a head coaching carousel. But just six months later, Saintfiet resigned to take on the head coaching job in Mali. Old hand Norman Fegidero was appointed interim coach, before Spaniard Albert Capellas came onboard in September.
Capellas quickly went to work with the AMEC just around the corner, but he was helpless against the clubs who refused to release their Filipino players for the biennial competition. The PFF managed to cobble together a competitive 26-man pool, which had limited preparation time. There was little reason to believe that this team would break a six-year spell of group stage elimination.
In perhaps the biggest sporting surprise in Philippine sports for the year, the PMNFT scraped through their group and advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 2018. They drew defending champions Thailand in the semis, and promptly proceeded to shock the Asian football community by beating the War Elephants in the first leg at Rizal Stadium. It was the Philippines’ first win over Thailand in 52 years and the first-ever win in an ASEAN Championship semifinal match.
The PMNFT came agonizingly close to sending the second leg into a penalty shootout where they could have sealed the country’s first final appearance, but they conceded a late goal in extra time. Nonetheless, the team put on a spirited run that brought the excitement back to Rizal Stadium.
UP Fighting Maroons finally break through
Prior to the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball finals between the defending champions DLSU Green Archers and the UP Fighting Maroons, there were two things that had rung true for the past three UAAP seasons: one, the Fighting Maroons had never won a finals game at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum; and two, the Fighting Maroons had a 4-1 finals record at the Mall of Asia Arena.
For Season 87 alone, there was also this bit of trivia going against UP entering the finals: they had lost by double digits twice to the Green Archers in the elimination round.
The Boys from Diliman flipped the script in the best-of-three finals. In a strange twist, they won both finals games at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum and lost the lone game at the Mall of Asia Arena. They also snapped a four-game losing skid against DLSU dating back to the Season 86 finals. Crucially, after two straight runner-up finishes, they finally hung on to a fourth-quarter lead in a Game 3 to slay the Ghost of Christmas Past.
UP’s second title in four seasons was a stark contrast to the first one they won in Season 84. Whereas in 2022 the Fighting Maroons snapping 36 years of futility was a mixture of disbelief and unbridled joy, the Season 87 triumph was more of relief and redemption.
Rubilen Amit bags women’s world 9-ball crown
In a year when Philippine billiards reached new heights, Rubilen Amit was the lone Filipino pool player to win a world title.
Amit’s specialty has always been 10-ball – she is a two-time women’s world 10-ball champion – so to finally scale the mountaintop in women’s 9-ball was a special accomplishment. This feat also puts her in good company as she now joins Efren Reyes, Ronnie Alcano and Carlo Biado as the only Filipino pool players to have won at least two world titles.
And yet, the win, accomplished in New Zealand, was special as it was Amit’s first world title won outside the Philippines (her two previous 10-ball titles came in Manila). It also sets her apart from the rest of the pack as she is now the only Filipino pool player to win three world titles.
Honorable mentions
Here’s a short list of other notable events in 2024 that just missed the cut:
The Meralco Bolts win their first-ever PBA title
The Creamline Cool Smashers dominate the local volleyball scene
The Adamson Softball Team win their 11th straight UAAP title
Chess whiz Daniel Quizon becomes a grandmaster before his 20th birthday
Banner Images courtest of AFP, PFF, and Kieran Punay