Lukas Dauser

Lukas Dauser (born 15 June 1993) is a German male artistic gymnast and a two-time Olympian, having competed at the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games. He is the 2023 World Champion and the 2020 Olympic and 2022 World silver medalist on the parallel bars.

Career
Dauser became a member of the first German gymnastics league at the age of 19. He formerly trained in Berlin, although he represented two gymnastics clubs – TSV Unterhaching and KTV Straubenhardt from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.

2014–2016
Dauser's major international debut came at the 2014 World Championships in Nanjing, PRC. There, he placed eighth as a member of the German squad in the team all-around tournament. On that same year, Dauser performed a new element on the parallel bars during the Challenge Cup in Anadia, Portugal. Due to its complexity, the International Gymnastics Federation officially named an element on the parallel bars after him, involving a giant swing backward with Makuts to upper arm hang.

In 2016, Dauser became the national champion on parallel bars, scoring even more points than Marcel Nguyen, the country's previous leader on parallel bars. At the pre-Olympic qualification, the German team ranked first, with Dauser capping off the meet in fourth position on the parallel bars. On 10 July, Andreas Hirsch, head coach of the German national team, proposed that Dauser would be included in the national team to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. There, Dauser, along with the German quintet of Andreas Bretschneider, Fabian Hambüchen, Marcel Nguyen, and Andreas Toba, scored a total of 261.275 points to take the seventh position in the team all-around final.

2017–2019
Dauser competed at various All-Around World Cups in 2017, eventually winning bronze in London behind Oleg Verniaiev and Donnell Whittenburg. At the 2017 European Championships Dauser won silver on parallel bars behind Verniaiev. During the German national championships in June Dauser tore his ACL and was unable to compete for the remainder of the year.

Dauser returned to competition at the 2018 World Championships where he finished 24th in the all-around and eighth on parallel bars. He next competed at the Cottbus World Cup where he finished eighth on parallel bars.

In April of 2019 Dauser competed at the European Championships; he was the second reserve for the parallel bars final. At the 2019 World Championships Dauser once again finished eighth on parallel bars.

2020–21
Most competitions in 2020 were either canceled or postponed, including the 2020 Summer Olympics. At the 2021 European Championships Dauser won bronze on the parallel bars behind Ferhat Arıcan and David Belyavskiy.

Dauser was selected to compete at the 2020 Olympic Games alongside Nils Dunkel, Philipp Herder, and Andreas Toba. Together they finished eighth as a team. Individually Dauser qualified to the all-around and parallel bars finals. During the all-around final he finished eighth. Dauser won a silver medal on parallel bars behind Zou Jingyuan of China.

2022
Dauser competed at the 2022 European Championships in Munich, where he finished ninth in the all-around. Additionally, he qualified to the parallel bars final, and helped Germany qualify to the team final. During the team final Germany finished seventh. Dauser finished eighth on the parallel bars after falling off the apparatus during event finals.

At the 2022 World Championships Dauser finished eleventh in the all-around. During the parallel bars final he won silver behind Zou Jingyuan.

2023
In September Dauser competed at the Paris World Challenge Cup; he won gold on parallel bars and place fourth on horizontal bar and seventh on pommel horse.

The following month Dauser competed at the 2023 World Championships alongside Pascal Brendel, Nils Dunkel, Nick Klessing, and Lucas Kochan; together they finished sixth as a team. Individually Dauser finished sixteenth in the all-around and won gold on parallel bars. In doing so he became the first person from a unified Germany to become World Champion on the apparatus; previously Sylvio Kroll had won while representing East Germany.

2024
In early April Dauser competed at the Osijek World Challenge Cup where he placed first on the parallel bars. Dauser competed at the German national championships where he placed first ahead of Andreas Toba and Timo Eder. Two weeks later, while competing at the final German Olympic trial, Dauser injured his right upper arm while competing on the still rings. Despite being diagnosed with a muscle injury, he was still named to the team to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games alongside Toba, Eder, Nils Dunkel, and Pascal Brendel.