MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. Russia’s three-time world champion in gymnastics Artur Dalaloyan told TASS on Tuesday he intended to keep performing for his country at international tournaments through the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

"I believe that I will be fit enough for the next cycle," the 24-year-old gymnast said in an interview with TASS. "Of course, I would have been more confident if the current Olympics had not been moved for the next year, because certain doubts already cross my mind."

The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo were scheduled to be held between July 24 and August 9, and the 2020 Summer Paralympic Games were planned to be organized between August 25 and September 6. The IOC and the IPC (the International Paralympic Committee) announced their decision on March 24 to postpone for one year the tournaments in Japan due to the continuous COVID-19 spread.

Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo-2020 Olympics Local Organizing Committee, announced on March 30 that the Summer Olympic Games in Japan next year will start on July 23 and the Summer Paralympic Games will begin on August 24.

"I now have thoughts very often that nothing lasts forever just like the passion for sport," Dalaloyan continued. "Sooner or later, a moment will come when everything is over and I keep thinking about when this moment may come."

"I wish to believe that this moment will come after 2024 and I will be able to stay at the high level for another cycle," he said. "However, I do not want to linger by way of gritting my teeth and thinking that this is what is vital for me. I want to keep my passion for this sport."

At the 2019 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, held in Poland’s Szczecin on April 10-14, Dalaloyan and his teammate Nikita Nagorny won silver and gold respectively in men’s individual all-around competition.

At the 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Qatar’s Doha, Dalaloyan clinched gold and Nagorny took bronze in men’s individual all-around competition. Dalaloyan’s win in Doha brought Russia the first gold of the World Championships in men’s all-around event in almost 20 years.

Dalaloyan also won the gold in men’s floor exercise at the global gymnastics tournament in Doha in 2018, becoming the first Russian in the 21st century to win two golds at one world championship.

At the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, hosted by Germany’s Stuttgart between October 4 and 13, Dalaloyan won the gold medal in the team event.