USC’s Ezra Frech sets Paralympics record to win high jump gold medal
PARIS — USC freshman Ezra Frech won the T63 high jump gold medal at the Paralympics on Tuesday in Paris. It was the second gold medal in two days for Frech, who won the T63 100-meter dash title in a photo finish on Monday.
Frech, 19, won the high jump gold medal with his first-attempt clearance at 6 feet, 4¼ inches, which is a new Paralympics record. He then tried to better his own world record of 6-5½ by raising the bar to 6-6, but he narrowly missed keeping the bar on at that height. The T63 designation is the classification for athletes with a single-leg amputation above the knee.
100 days later… mission accomplished
Ezra Frech wins his Paralympic gold in the high jump T63.
: @USANetwork & @peacock #ParisParalympics
pic.twitter.com/zd3CNRD3Be— Team USA (@TeamUSA) September 3, 2024
Earlier in the games, Frech placed fifth in the men’s T63 long jump final on Saturday with a best jump of 21-7¼ (+0.9).
In a 100-meter race in which the top five athletes were separated by .1 seconds on Monday, 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.
FIRST PARALYMPIC GOLD MEDAL
Ezra Frech is the Paralympic champion in the 100m T63 (PB 12.06)!
: @nbc & @peacock#ParisParalympics pic.twitter.com/OhHumYoHLJ
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) September 3, 2024
Frech, who made his Paralympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, said Monday that competing in front of a crowd at a Paralympic Games for the first time has been an incredible experience.
“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 L.A. (Los Angeles 2028 Games).”
Frech was born with congenital limb differences and fingers missing on his left hand, his left leg amputated when he was 2½ years old. By 9 years old, he was speaking on “Ellen” as an advocate for people with physical disabilities in sports. By 11 years old, he’d solidified a dream to become a Paralympian.
He has spent his young life sharing the story of his young life, preaching to an ever-growing audience of more than 500,000 combined followers on Instagram and TikTok. Earlier this year, he committed to USC for track and field, becoming – according to Team USA – the first above-the-knee amputee to earn a Division I track and field scholarship.
Frech is the inaugural Swim With Mike Scholarship recipient of the Amir Ekbatani Paralympic Scholarship, awarded to a Paralympian attending USC or UCLA. He is in his first semester at USC.
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