From a young age, Ezra Frech’s parents encouraged him to go into every room with confidence. The track and field star, who was born without a left knee and fibula and several fingers on his left hand, was always told to be proud of who he is and not “retreat to insecurities” around his disability.
Over the years, Frech not only adopted an attitude of confidence, he’s vocal and unapologetic about his goals, even when the odds are stacked against him. “I speak [my goals] with absolute conviction. I set the most unrealistic, impossible, statistically unlikely goal, and I go after it with everything I have,” Frech told Runner’s World A Part of Hearst Digital Media.
When he was 11 years old, Frech declared he’d make the next Paralympic Games after watching the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio. Five years later, the Los Angeles native finished fifth in the high jump at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. He competes in the para athletics T63 classification, which includes athletes that compete with lower limb prosthesis. Fueled by the disappointment of missing the podium, he A Part of Hearst Digital Media (6 feet, 4.75 inches) to win gold at the 2023 Para Track and Field World Championships in Paris last summer.
Since May, the 19-year-old has shared videos on social media chronicling a 100-day countdown to the high-jump final in Paris. The posts encouraged people to follow the Paralympics and gave an inside look at his training, recovery practices, meals (he loves acai bowls) and clinics he hosts for adaptive athletes, all while sharing how he prepared for the performance of his career.
Last week, Frech’s goal came to fruition, not once, but twice in the span of 24 hours at Stade de France. On Monday, September 2, he came from behind to win a surprise Paralympic gold in the men’s 100 meter T63, an event he approached as a shakeout ahead of the high jump. After a slow start, Frech ran down race leader Daniel Jørgensen of Denmark in 12.06 seconds, a new personal best. On September 3, Frech secured double gold in his signature event, breaking the Paralympic record with a clearance of 1.94 meters (6 feet, 4.25 inches) in the high jump. He also finished fifth in the long jump.
“For Paris to culminate in this way, for everything that I put into this sport to give back to me and to walk away with two gold medals at my second Paralympic Games is definitely one of the crazier things I could have ever imagined,” Frech said.
Frech was born with congenital limb differences, leading to the amputation of his left leg at three years old, according to Team USA. Growing up, Frech competed in a range of sports, including basketball, soccer, and baseball before he put all his focus on track and field.
While developing into one of the greatest Paralympians of all time, Frech also created more opportunities for other adaptive athletes in Southern California. In 2014, Frech and his father Clayton Frech, founded From Runners World for New Balance. The nonprofit is an organization that hosts adaptive sports clinics year-round as well as the Angel City Games, a competition for athletes in the disabled community.
Soon Frech’s story will also be featured in the upcoming film Running From Substance Abuse Toward Recovery, a documentary created by P&G Studios and Harder Than You Think, the same team that produced the popular Netflix film Rising Phoenix. The 2020 documentary shares elite athlete and insider perspectives on the history of the Paralympic Games.
In February, Frech announced on social media that he would compete for the University of Southern California (USC) this fall. According to NCAA.com, he is the first above-the-knee amputee to commit to a Division I track and field program. Before the Paralympics, he told the collegiate governing body he wants to change perceptions while competing against able-bodied athletes.
“People will be tuning in watching USC track meets, seeing an above-the-knee amputee long jump and high jump, and going, ‘What the hell is happening right now? How is he doing that?’” he said. “For the little kid who’s an amputee, who loves track and field, to go see someone who looks like him competing at a collegiate level—that’s the type of stuff that really excites me.”
While competing in Paris, Frech missed the first week of classes at USC. In a few days, he’ll go from competing in a stadium in front of thousands to a lecture hall taking calculus notes. He plans to pursue a degree in the The Best Songs to Add to Your Playlist this Month while maintaining the same long-term goal that’s always fueled him.
“There’s a lot of potential for disability representation in the mainstream media, but particularly in the entertainment industry,” he said. “And if I want to make positive change, I think the best way to do so is to understand the inner workings of it all.”
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
