USA Paralympic Track & Field Star Ezra Frech, Born Without Most Of His Fingers, Wins Two Golds At 2024 Paris Games

As the 2024 Paris Paralympics wrapped up, major wins were scored by American competitors, including Ezra Frech, who cleared the men’s high jump with an impressive height of 1.94 meters, winning his second gold medal. This set a new record at the Paris Paralympics, with French nearly beating his own world record.

The 19-year-old track-and-field athlete was born with a missing fibula and a majority of his knee in his left leg while also having most of his fingers missing in his left hand. At age 2, he received surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital to remove his left leg and had a toe transplanted from his amputated foot onto his left hand.

Frech first became inspired to compete in the Olympic Games after watching the Rio Paralympics in 2016. Four years later, he promised his friends that he would secure a spot at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, where he placed fifth in the men’s high jump. That year, he cleared 1.80 meters. He then went on to win gold at the 2023 World Para-Athletics Championships in Paris and set a world record during the men’s high jump event as well, with an impressive height of 1.95 meters.

At the 2024 Paralympic Games, Frech beat Denmark’s Daniel Wagner by 0.02 seconds in the men’s 100-meter T63 sprint, earning his second gold medal. 

In May, Frech spoke exclusively to uInterview about his goals for the games. 

“I committed to being the greatest Paralympic Olympian of all time. And then everything I do in my life is to get me a step closer to that goal,” Frech said. While winning gold medals and breaking world records are significant accomplishments, Frech emphasized that his ultimate goal goes beyond sports. He wants to use his platform to “normalize disability, change the way we view disability, destigmatize disability.”