For the last few months, USA track phenom Ezra Frech has flooded his social media accounts with a countdown of the days "until I win Paralympic gold." That countdown officially ended Monday when Frech stunned the world—and himself—by winning the 100-meter T63 race for his first Paralympic gold medal.
“I was literally treating this in my head as a shakeout for high jump,” Frech said on the NBC broadcast after the win. “I’m going to run my all, lean at the line and see where I end up. I crossed the line, had no idea, looked up and saw my name first. Not what I was expecting but damn, am I hyped.
“The whole time I was telling myself, stay relaxed. Big moments, everybody tenses up. If I stay relaxed I can do something special and thank God I did.”
After finishing fifth in the long jump, the 19-year-old took to the track yesterday in the 100 meter with many expecting that his gold-medal countdown would have to wait another day, with what is considered his strongest event coming in the high jump on Tuesday. Yet Frech came from the back of the pack at the start of the 100-meter T63 (an event reserved for athletes with a single leg amputation above the knee who run with a prosthesis) to finish first with a lean across the line in a personal-best time of 12.06, just two-hundreths of a second ahead of silver medalist Daniel Wagner of Denmark.
IT’S GOLD FOR EZRA FRECH 😱
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) September 2, 2024
He is the Paralympic champion in the men’s 100m T63!
📺: @USANetwork & @peacock #ParisParalympics
pic.twitter.com/vBuITJShW3
Frech was born with congenital limb differences that left him without his left knee and fibula. He received his first running blade at four years old and later began competing on the adaptive sports track circuit. At the age of 16, the Los Angeles native barely missed the podium at the Tokyo Olympics in high jump, which pushed him to keep a photo of the winner’s podium on his phone as motivation. In July, he set the world record in the high jump after medaling in consecutive world championships (gold in 2023, silver in '24).
Now, on Tuesday in the high jump, he'll be considered the favorite to double his gold medal haul.
“I’m still in shock,” Frech said. “I can’t even process this right now. I’ve got the high jump. Everybody make sure to tune in then, back-to-back golds.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Team USA Star Ezra Frech Earns First Paralympic Gold in Thrilling 100 Meter Win.
