Eight years ago, Ezra Frech watched in awe as his mentor, Sam Grewe, won a silver medal for high jump at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics. Frech had competed in plenty of his own track meets, but while watching a fellow above-the-knee amputee on the international podium, inspiration struck. The 11-year-old Frech had an “epiphany” — he was going to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic games at 15.
“I was so inspired. I said, ‘You know what, this is what I want to do with my life.’ So I told everybody I knew,” Frech said. “But then, sure enough, five years later — obviously the extra year because the pandemic — I made that dream happen.”
Frech was born with congenital limb differences, missing his knee, fibula and fingers on his left side. Frech took to sports early, playing soccer, basketball and football. After breaking national youth records at the Endeavor Games when he was 8, Frech began primarily focusing on track. At 16, Frech placed fifth in the high jump event and eighth in the long jump event at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics.
Now, as Frech gears up for the Paris Paralympics, he’s given up the typical teen lifestyle in the hopes of winning a gold medal. When his training partner would stop to make a silly TikTok, Frech stepped aside and compulsively took out his massage gun to stretch his calf. While he mentioned having to miss out on a sponsored trip to Coachella because it would interfere with training, giving up the free festival didn’t seem to phase him. By delaying college for a year, Frech is able to meticulously plan out each day, fitting in stretching, training, eating, weight lifting, recovery and then 10 to 12 hours of sleep.
“Everything is just focus, laser focus,” Frech’s strength coach, Ariyon Tolbert, said. “I remember one time he had eaten one cookie, and he called me in shambles, like, ‘Ari, what am I supposed to do? I ate a cookie.’”
Every uneaten cookie, missed social event and repetitive training cycle pushes Frech closer to achieving his dream day at the Paralympics: he’ll win his gold medal, then celebrate by watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle at 11 p.m. with his family. Even after Frech won a gold medal in high jump at the 2023 Para Athletics World Championships and set a world record, he couldn’t stop thinking about next summer.
“I won that world title, I was walking through the media row, I was having these interviews and in the back of my head, I’m saying, ‘This doesn’t mean anything if I don’t do it again next year. This is all great, but this doesn’t matter unless I do it again next year.’ So I was sitting there, I was happy. I was proud. I was unbelievably grateful, but I wasn’t content,” Frech said. “I’m not content, I don’t think I ever will be.”
This mentality permeates all of Frech’s training. The first two hours of his practice are dedicated solely to warming up, from carefully counted-out calf stretches to deep breath yoga. During a rainy Saturday afternoon practice, Frech — along with fellow Paralympian and training partner Trenten Merrill — bit their tongues and closed their eyes in pain as they worked out, passing back and forth new stretches and techniques.
“Ezra is very driven and motivated,” Merrill said. “He’s very confident and he’s very goal oriented. It elevates my game. All ships in the sea rise together when you train with Ezra.”
In the midst of his training for the Paralympics, Frech committed to USC last month. He is the first above-the-knee amputee to commit to a Division-I track and field program.
“I see a beautiful legacy like that [at USC] on the Olympic side and I think, ‘Now how can we do that on the Paralympic side,’ and this is a step in that direction,” Frech said. “Some of the best athletes in the U.S. competing for our country have come out of the USC track and field program. And I’m excited to put myself in that mix now.”
Another important aspect of Frech’s commitment to USC came through his hope to help normalize disability. Frech has a booming social media presence with over 141,000 Instagram followers and has co-founded Angel City Sports, a nonprofit that provides adaptive sports opportunities. He believes his presence when competing is paramount to helping the public understand disability.
“As far as being an example of what’s possible as an amputee, that’s directly aligned with what I hope to do at USC. I hope to, as an above-the-knee amputee, perform for this amazing track program and change perceptions,” Frech said. “I want people to pull up at a track meet, see the kid with one leg out-jumping everybody and go, ‘What? That doesn’t make any sense.’”
While Frech is currently training for Paris, his goals don’t stop when the summer ends. At USC, he’s hoping to be an NCAA champion and an All-American. Once he graduates in 2028, Frech is looking to win what he calls “the triple crown” at his hometown Paralympics.
“My plan for LA28 is to win something that I’ve deemed the triple crown, which is a gold in the high jump, a gold in the long jump and a gold in the 100 meter,” Frech said. “Never been done before in the history of the Olympics, Paralympics. Nobody’s won those three — I plan to win all of those in my hometown … right after I graduate from USC. That’s the plan.”