On May 30, 2024, Lais Najjar got a text from an old coach in Syria.
It read simply:
“Congratulations.”
The text was only one word, but Najjar knew what it meant: He was going to Paris for the Olympics.
“(They) basically didn’t even say anything about the Olympics,” Najjar told The Michigan Daily. “Just ‘congratulations.’ And up until then, we were expecting to hear news about whether or not we made it, so I wasn’t confused. I kind of knew but I didn’t want to celebrate. And then when I talked to my mom and she had the news, I felt like I was on top of the world.”
Najjar had earned a universality spot — a spot made available to countries which are typically underrepresented at the Olympics. After competing in gymnastics internationally under Syria’s flag for years and winning the all-around and the floor at the 2023 Arab Games, the 21-year old was granted a spot to compete in the Olympics, fulfilling a forgotten dream.
“Every kid who watches the Olympics, it’s almost like the beginning of a dream,” Najjar said. “But 10 years after that initial dream, you kind of forget about it, and you start working towards it, and you forget about the dream itself. And that’s what I felt like until I figured out I (was going to) the Olympics, where it’s like, ‘Wow, my childhood dream is here. This is what I’ve been working for. This is why I even started gymnastics.’ And it’s almost like I forgot this was a huge portion of what made me want to do gymnastics.”
And Najjar is going to be representing the country that he considers home just as much as the United States.
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Najjar’s gymnastics story begins with a trip to the emergency room.
“He was just flipping at home, hit his head,” Lais’s father, Maher, told The Daily. “He was just hyperactive, too much activity. And then I said, ‘Look, let me put him in a sport where he just discharged all that activity.’ And I chose for him gymnastics.”
Lais was born in Chicago, but spent much of his younger years in Syria, where his family is from. With poor economic prospects in Syria, Maher — a pulmonologist — spent those years traveling back-and-forth between Syria and Chicago, spending three weeks in Chicago and then returning to Syria to see his family. When Lais’ oldest sister, Lian, entered high school, Maher moved the family back to the United States where he could better provide for them and where there were more educational opportunities. Shortly after, the Syrian Civil War started, and traveling back and forth to Syria became much more challenging. Maher considers it fortunate that the family moved when they did.
“It was great timing,” Maher said. “And then we stayed here. We got stuck here. Not got stuck, actually. Our life continued to be here, right?”
Lais began gymnastics soon after that move and subsequent ER visit. His abundance of talent became evident, and he moved from the beginner class to a competitive team early on. His career took off at Lakeshore Academy in Illinois, where he trained with future Michigan teammate and current housemate, Rithik Puri.
Puri first inspired Lais to aim for Michigan. Puri was one of the most talented gymnasts at Lakeshore, constantly in contention for the U.S. team and someone Lais strove to both emulate and beat. Puri’s experience with the Wolverines’ recruitment and gymnastics program pushed Lais to try as well, which eventually led him to making the team he now captains.
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In 2016, Lais began to compete internationally for Syria. His family returns to Syria every summer to visit family, despite the difficulties of traveling there. At first, Lais was reluctant to take time away from gymnastics with these visits, but his father found a private coach in Syria which allowed him to continue training while overseas. Part of the difficulty is that sports in Syria are considered hobbies rather than full-time professions. Athletes work regular jobs and train in their off time. Additionally, soccer is the dominant sport in Syria. Men’s gymnastics is not a popular sport nor one that is well supported by the government.
In a country that was recently ravaged by war and in a sport that is not well-known, it was unlikely that Lais would have a path forward to the Olympics. But the Syrian Arab Athletic Federation reached out to Lais to ask if he wanted to compete internationally for Syria. Lais accepted and began traveling around the world for competitions. It became a family affair as Maher served as the team doctor, and his mother, Chirin Chahkhachiro, became the head of the team.
“Very demanding,” Lais’s second older sister, Masa, told The Daily in reference to Lais’s participation in international competitions. “This is something that required a lot of sacrifice, a lot of international travel, a lot of planning and prep and practice and Lais would oftentimes have to miss out on family milestones or social gatherings — whatever it may be. He really put gymnastics and competing at the forefront of everything that he did. Which, now it’s awesome because it’s paying off, but throughout the years, it didn’t feel that awesome.”
Lais’s career began in the U.S., and he spends most of the year training with fellow American gymnasts like his Michigan teammates Paul Juda and Frederick Richard — gymnasts who are expected to make the U.S. national team for Paris. But Syria holds special meaning for Lais, and as much time as he spends in the U.S., he still considers Syria home.
“My household is Syrian,” Lais said. “We speak Arabic, we practice all the traditions and customs and my parents are very much still more Syrian than American. And I would almost consider myself the same. I am extremely patriotic for Syria. All my family’s there. And if I had the chance to represent them, of course I would.”
Lais represented Syria throughout the years at various international competitions, winning a few medals along the way. But in 2023 at the Arab Games in Oran, Algeria, he broke through. In Syria’s return to the Games for the first time since 2007, Lais won the all-around competition by nine-tenths of a point and the floor competition by one-tenth of a point. He also won the silver medal on high bar and two bronze medals on vault and parallel bars, respectively. And along with three other Syrian men’s gymnasts, he led Syria to the team bronze medal. It was Syria’s best performance in gymnastics in decades. That performance qualified him for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics and gained him enormous recognition back home.
“I realized I was making positive history for Syria, especially in sports — in gymnastics specifically,” Lais said. “When I greet my aunts or uncles, the first thing they say is, ‘You raised our heads.’ Like you put a good face to us. And now, that always makes me smile, obviously, but reminds me that unfortunately, people don’t think of Syria through accomplishments or good things. It’s always somewhat news and tragedy. But the people there are very strong, and they just want a new energy to them or for people to see them in a new energy, in a new light. So raising our heads has been the goal.”
On July 27, Lais will participate in the men’s gymnastics qualification rounds at the Paris Olympics. His whole family will be watching from the stands, cheering him on, just as they have for his entire career. And when he raises his head to salute the judges, he’ll be raising the heads of his country along with him as he realizes his forgotten childhood dream.
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