Lais Najjar

Lais Najjar (born October 8, 2002) is an American-born Syrian artistic gymnast. He represented Syria at the 2024 Olympic Games.

Personal life

Najjar was born in Chicago, Illinois in 2002 to Chirin Chahkhachiro and Maher Najjar. He spent much of his childhood living in Syria while his father, a pulmonologist, traveled back and forth between the two locations. Prior to the start of the Syrian civil war, Najjar and his family moved back to the United States, where they would have better access to educational opportunities for himself and his two sisters. Najjar attended Hinsdale Central High School and currently competes for the University of Michigan Men’s Gymnastics Team.

Gymnastics career

Najjar competed at the inaugural Junior World Championships in floor exercise and vault. He did not qualify for any individual event finals.

Najjar made his senior-level debut at the Cairo World Challenge Cup, where he won silver on vault, behind Nazar Chepurnyi. In 2022 Najjar began competing in NCAA gymnastics for the Michigan Wolverines. Later that year he competed at the Asian Championships, Mediterranean Games and World Championships.

Najjar competed at the 2024 Asian Championships, where he placed 17th in the all-around. In late May, Najjar was awarded the Tripartite invitation to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Competitive history

Year	Event	Team	AA	FX	PH	SR	VT	PB	HB
2017
	Junior Asian Championships		17
2019
	Junior World Championships			42
2021	Elite Team Cup	4
	Cairo World Challenge Cup			7
2022	NCAA Championships
	Asian Championships	13	17
	Mediterranean Games		19				5
	World Championships		49
2023	NCAA Championships
	Asian Championships		21
	Arab Games
2024	NCAA Championships
	Asian Championships		17
	Olympic Games			51				47	54