Picture by 2024 Getty Images
Ezra Frech was just nine years old when he wowed a national TV audience in the USA.
"When I play sports, I feel at home," Frech, who was born without most of his left leg and is missing fingers on his left hand, told Ellen Degeneres on her talk show.
A decade later, the Tokyo Paralympian is the reigning world champion in T63 high jump in para-athletics, setting his sights on the Paralympic Games Paris 2024.
But Frech, who is 19, isn't just competing for gold. He has bigger causes he's fuelled by.
"I think what serves as my north star, my real motivation, is the disabled community at large," Frech told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview. "There are kids around the world who are abandoned by their parents, who are left in the trash to die, or are killed because they were born different. And even in the U.S., people with physical disabilities are bullied at higher rates."
Frech's moving story is featured in the new Olympic Channel original series, The Starting Line, which showcases his drive and determination, as well as his role with Angel City Sports, a not-for-profit started by his family which holds some 250 adaptive sports clinics a year for disabled athletes.
"I think the reason people should watch Paralympic [athletics] is because you have some of the most exciting movements in all of sports," Frech said. "You have people missing their legs, running with blades at top speed, bouncing into the air unbelievably high, jumping over bars six feet, seven feet in the air.
"I think there's nothing more epic than that."
Frech made his Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, placing fifth in the high jump and eighth in the long jump. He's continued to make inroads on an international scale, the American setting a new world record in the high jump with his win at the World Championships last year, soaring to 1.95m (6 feet, 4 inches).
But the purpose for Frech has continued to be about the overall cause, and getting more and more people to be aware of the Paralympic movement.
"Most people [still] don't understand what the Paralympics is, the fact that people call me an Olympian or don't understand the difference," Frech said. "It's a blessing in a way, because now us Paralympians have the opportunity to change that in how we brand, market, and promote ourselves - and the movement, and what we do on social media and in the mainstream media to hopefully build that representation."
Frech has added his voice to a chorus of para athletes calling for better and more representation, taking on motivational speaking and accruing some 160,000-plus followers on Instagram.
"[In para sports], you see people who most of society views as less than just because they're missing a limb or have some sort of amputation," explained. "Yet here they are, competing at the highest level of sport in the world and doing some really dope stuff.
He continued: "Life with a physical disability is really difficult, yes, [but] my overarching goals are to normalise disability, to change the way society views disability, destigmatize it, take away this taboo that is surrounding this community, which really shouldn't be there.
"I believe that through proper representation, promotion, and awareness of the Paralympic Games, children around the world won't have to be abandoned by their parents just because they were born different."
Frech sees the very spirit of the Paralympics as athletes lifting up the disabled community, particularly at a global scale.
He has taken much of that from his parents, Clayton and Bahar, who have played formative roles in Angel City Sports. Frech has two younger brothers, Elijah and Gabriel, whom he sees himself as a mentor to, a further driving force of motivation for him.
"Everything I do... is to set a good example so they can follow in my footsteps in whatever field they aim to go after," Ezra explained. "I think having that unconditional love from two people you call your best friends is very, very important and special.
"It impacts my life substantially."
"I'm grateful to have the love and support of the people around me as I pursue something so daunting," Frech says in The Starting Line. "They help me re-charge."
Frech has also drawn inspiration from his longtime hero, Sam Grewe, who won the T63 high jump event in Tokyo, as well as Roderick Townsend, a fellow U.S. para high jumper (though in a different classification) whom Ezra has been coached by remotely.
He won his world title over Grewe, in fact, and in the same place he'd like to go golden in this summer: Paris. Is it part of a coming together for Frech?
"It's all going to come together," he says in the docuseries. "Trust the process."
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