Nineteen-year-old Ezra Frech made sure the first Paralympic medal of his career was gold after putting together a massive personal-best time in the 100-meter T63 final to claim the title in a photo finish. The USC commit’s title was the sole medal for Team USA in track and field on the fourth day of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Monday.
In a race in which the top five athletes were separated by .1 seconds, Frech sprinted to a 12.06-second result, edging Denmark’s Daniel Wagner by .02 seconds and Vinicius Goncalves Rodriguez of Brazil by .04 for the victory.
“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. I knew I could, but I have high jump tomorrow and that’s where my focus has been. I was treating this as a warm-up for high jump, to get the blood flowing and have a good race, then come back tomorrow and win high jump.”
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Frech, who made his Paralympic debut in Tokyo, is the 2023 world champion and current world record holder in the high jump T63, in which he competes Tuesday night. He also finished fifth in long jump on Aug. 31 to open his Paris campaign.
Competing in front of a crowd at a Paralympic Games for the first time has been an incredible experience, Frech said.
“This is a special opportunity for Paralympic sport,” he said. “What this Games is doing for the movement is unlike anything I’ve ever seen – the energy, the atmosphere reminds me of London 2012. I look forward to riding this momentum into LA (Los Angeles 2028 Games), but right now I’m happy to have gold. I’m still not satisfied, though – I’m hungry to get gold in the high jump.”
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