The American teenager who stunned himself—and the world—to win Paralympic gold
Summary
Ezra Frech, a 19-year-old amputee from Los Angeles, planned to run the 100 meters as a warm-up for the high jump. Instead, he won one of the closest races of the Games.Ezra Frech lined up for his 100-meter final at the Paris Paralympics on Monday knowing precisely what he was there for. This race, he figured, was a warm-up. His real event—the one where he holds the world record for single-leg amputees above the knee (T63)—is the high jump. And that final was still 24 hours away.
Then that warm-up went better than Frech had ever imagined.
Some 12.06 seconds after the starting gun went off, the 19-year-old from Los Angeles was a Paralympic champion. In a stunningly close race that saw the top five finishers cross the line in the same tenth of a second, Frech’s dip had won him the gold medal and turned him into one of the sensations of the Games.
“I’m quite shocked," he said. “I’m still taking it in right now. I was definitely not expecting to go out there and win."
What Frech did know for sure was that he was bound to make headlines on the track this year, no matter what happened in Paris. After the Paralympics, he is due at the University of Southern California where he recently became the first above-the-knee amputee to commit to a Division I track and field program. He plans to compete in sprints, high jump, and long jump 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 told the NCAA.
In Paralympic circles, however, Frech’s name was already well established. Born without a left fibula or knee, he was fitted with his first prosthetic as a baby and played basketball, soccer, and baseball throughout childhood. But by his teens, Frech was ready to focus on track and field. He qualified for his first Paralympics in Tokyo in 2021, when he was just 16, but missed the podium in all of his events.
“I thought to myself, I’m going to use this moment as fuel to drive me to become the greatest Paralympian of all time," he said.
At the same time, this high-schooler was using his sports career to build a platform as a motivational speaker, as an advocate for Paralympic sports, and occasionally as a model—last year, Frech joined sprinter and now Olympic champion Noah Lyles to walk the runway of a Hugo Boss fashion show in Milan.
Still, his targets were always Paris and, eventually, the 2028 Paralympics in his hometown. Frech arrived in the French capital this summer with a high jump world record in his category of 6 feet 5.5 inches, fully expecting to compete for the gold. He told himself that if he could post a decent result in the 100 meters, then that would be a bonus.
“I was treating this as a warm-up for high jump, to get the blood flowing and have a good race," said Frech, who had already finished fifth in the long jump. “Then come back [Tuesday] and win high jump."
Once that’s over, Frech will jet back to USC, where he is already late for his freshman year. Classes began last week.
“I’ll be sending my teachers an email tonight," he told NBC after winning the 100, “apologizing for missing some class."
