Two-time world champion Carlos Yulo rattled off the names of his top rivals and the countries that are sending solid gold medal bets in the Paris Olympics, including an Armenian who has apparently got the Filipino pride all figured out.

Appearing during the MVPSF Gymnastics Center on Thursday in Intramuros, Yulo pointed to Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat and Artur Davytanm, an eight-time FIG Apparatus world champion, as top contenders for the gold in the floor exercise and vault, respectively.

Yulo is entered in the floor, parallel bars and vault.

“In the floor exercise, Dolgopyat is one of the strongest in the floor exercise while Davtyan is a favorite in the vault. There’s also gymnasts from the United Kingdom that are good,” Yulo, 24, said.

“For parallel bars, (gymnasts from) China, Ukraine, Germany are the countries we will most likely face in the finals.”

Still, Yulo believes he is right on track in his preparation for the 26 July to 11 August Summer Games following countless overseas competitions in the past several months.

Dolgopyat will be entering the Paris Summer Games as the defending floor exercise champion after conquering Tokyo in 2021.

At first, Yulo appeared superior to Dolgopyat as he beat him in 2019 when he bagged his first floor exercise gold medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany and became a top talent.

Yulo is entered in the floor, parallel bars and vault.

But the 26-year-old Israeli stormed back and grabbed the gold in the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp when Yulo failed to crack the top three.

Meanwhile, Davtyan also seems to have Yulo’s number since 2022 in the vault.

The 31-year-old Armenian gymnast dethroned Yulo in the World Championships in Liverpool and won eight FIG World Cup legs from 2022 until 2024

Apart from Dolgopyat and Davtyan, Yulo will also have to deal with Illia Kovtun of Ukraine, who excels in the parallel after winning three FIG Apparatus World Cup gold medals this year in Cairo, Cottbus in Germany and Baku.

Then there’s Lukas Dauser of Germany, who settled for silver in the parallel bars in the Tokyo Olympics where Yulo flopped.

Dauser also boasts of a gold medal finish in the 2023 World Championships.

While he will be staying in the Philippines for training until he leaves for France on 29 June, Yulo said he will be focusing on polishing his routines for Paris.

“Based on my performance and scores in the Asian Championships, it won’t be enough if I did the same thing in the Olympics. I need to practice my routines especially since it all boils down to the execution scores,” Yulo said.

“My routines can still be better and that’s what I’m focusing on right now.”

Yulo’s coach Aldrin Castañeda told DAILY TRIBUNE that they will be concentrating on body conditioning here in Manila to make sure that the two-time Olympian will be his best when he competes at the Bercy Arena in Paris on 27 July.

After all, the gymnast from Leveriza, Manila almost took home a medal in the Tokyo Games in 2021 after finishing fourth in the vault.

“His opponents are really good but we realized that getting a clean execution matters. We’ll be focusing on conditioning here, while in France, it will be polishing his skills,” Castañeda said.