Armenia’s Arthur Davtyan: I'm a little sad that I'm not coming back with gold medal

By Lusine Shahbazyan

I am glad that I will return with a medal. Artur Davtyan, Armenia’s Olympic silver and bronze medalist, world champion, and two-time European champion in artistic gymnastics, told NEWS.am Sport about this from Paris, commenting on his competition and the silver medal he won at Paris 2024.

Davtyan won the first medal of the Armenian Olympic team at the 33rd Summer Olympic Games being held in the capital of France.

The 32-year-old gymnast became an Olympic silver medalist in the Vault exercise at the Olympic artistic gymnastics tournament.

"A clean finish from two jumps was missing for [me in] the gold medal. My only chance of winning a gold medal would have been to not take a step at the end of both jumps, to stop cleanly. One of the Filipino gymnast's jumps was four decimals more complicated than my jumps. He jumped very well indeed. My only chance to beat him was to come, stand, and not take step on both jumps.

There was tension; it was the final of the Olympic Games. I am glad that I will return with a medal. I would have liked gold... It was a pity, but we have what we have. I'm a little sad that I'm not coming back with a gold medal. We [i.e. Armenia] went one step forward. I will train, I will prepare for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, definitely; the important thing is not to get injured.

I rate my performance at the Paris Olympics as normal. On the first day of the competition, I jumped both badly, there was a question whether I would make it to the finals or not. But everything turned out well, I made it to the finals, and I'm coming back [to Armenia] with a medal," said Artur Davtyan.

Armenia's artistic gymnastics team have finished their campaign at Paris 2024. Vahagn Davtyan, the other representative of the team in the Olympics, finished 6th in the Rings exercise.

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