Ezra Frech is the master of manifestation. Before the Paralympic athlete won back-to-back gold medals in Paris, the 19-year-old posted almost every day to Instagram. After winning silver at Worlds, Frech started a 100 day countdown leading up to the Paralympics 2024. “Day 89/100 until I win Paralympic Gold,” the posts would say. While some might not have this much faith in themselves, Frech knew it would be true, and he was right. Frech was already favored to win the high jump (which he did, and set a Paralympic record while doing it), but the day before he also competed in the 100 meters final and took home the gold.
Now, as Frech prepares to start his freshman year at the University of Southern California — something he had to miss the first few weeks of to compete in Paris — we caught up with the Paralympian to talk about his next-level manifestation skills, winning gold, and the evolution of Paralympic sports in the media.
Ezra Frech: I'm looking forward to … just being a normal human being for a month or so before I have to go back to being an obsessive, goal-oriented track and field athlete.
EF: We stay for a few days, but then I do have to get back, because I am missing my first few weeks of USC class right now. So I missed all the freshman orientation stuff and my first classes, and I’ve been trying to stay updated, but it's actually quite difficult to do so out of here.
EF: Everyone on the team who I become friends with has been super supportive and been reposting all my stuff on Instagram, and they've definitely seen everything. I actually got emails from some of my teachers that happened to watch me and saw how it went. So it's been quite cool to see the receptive love that I got from the USC community. But I definitely can't wait to get back on campus.
EF: I couldn't agree more with you, and I think that it's what the movement needed. We needed to have a Games like what's happening right now to build the hype leading into 2028 in Los Angeles. This Game has been amazing. The French public has shown up, the media representation, everyone showed up. The traction on social media has been through the roof. I think that the general public in the United States is understanding the Paralympics like never before. I think we're witnessing the breakthrough of the Paralympic Games, and I'm just grateful to play a small, tiny role in helping facilitate all this.
EF: This was quite a whirlwind, I'm not going to lie to you. I mean, I didn't do very well in the long jump. I was very disappointed. And the next day, I had the 100 meter prelims, and the next day the 100m final and to then win the 100 meter, it’s kind of a shocker to me as well. I was not expecting to go out there and win that, and then the next day, win the high jump. I just remember what my coach was telling me. He said, 'What side of history do you want to be on? This is historic. What's happening here in Stade de France in Paris at the Paralympic Games will never happen at this moment ever again. What side of history do you want to be on?' And in my head, I thought, 'Dang, I want to make sure that I'm on the right side of this moment.' Luckily, I was able to seize the moment. I'm definitely going to remember it for the rest of my life.
EF: I ran a really great race. I was pretty happy with my race. But once again, I haven't ran that many 100 meters. I've literally done three 100 meters the whole year before the final. So I have no perception of where my competitors are next to me. I cross the line, and I see my teammate, who had just finished his javelin competition. He's at my peripheral, and he's jumping and celebrating, and I'm thinking, “oh my god, did I just medal?” And then I'm pointing at the screen. I'm waiting for the results to come up, and I come up first, and I just flip out, and I'm running and going crazy. I can put myself back in that position, looking up at the scoreboard, waiting for the results to come up, and seeing my name first, and just being shocked. It was the greatest feeling you could ever imagine.
EF: Oddly enough, I don't get nervous for competition. I don't actually get nervous for anything in my life, which is a bit weird, but nerves would be the wrong characterization. There definitely is tension around a competition where you can feel the tension, and there's a lot at stake. I wouldn't say that I felt more tension after winning the 100 meter, if anything, I was almost in my head, I was a little bit upset. I was like, “I don't want this to affect high jump.” I was thinking, “Yeah, I just won the 100 meter, but I can't get complacent here. I have to forget this.” So it was a difficult process to become the fastest amputee in the world overnight. I surprised everybody, shocked the world, and then to go lay in your bed and try to not rewatch that video 1000 times and read all the comments and reply to everyone's sweet messages, and try to block that out and say, “Okay, now I have to refocus, because the job's not finished yet.” So that was definitely difficult. But if anything, winning a 100 meter almost proved to me that if I can go win the 100 meter, an event that I don't even really train for, is amazing. Then, in the event that I've put all this effort, all this time into that, I'm the best at, then I should win.
EF: Every day I felt sure, and I would be lying if I said there was an ounce of insecurity or fear. Every day I was sure. I have a whole routine that I would go through, that I've been doing way before the countdown even started, to convince myself that I'm the Paralympic champion. I literally convinced myself that I was the Paralympic champion by October. So everything else is just what the Paralympic champion does, and what happened Tuesday night, that’s just what the Paralympic champion does. He wins. There's the countdown. That was just a fraction of all the work I was putting in behind the scenes.
EF: I would say, speak it. Oftentimes people shy away from vocalizing their goals, but in you not vocalizing your goals — because you are afraid or you might look bad if it doesn't happen — that's you admitting that there is fear and insecurity and that it's not going to happen. People would call me and say, “Hey, I don't think you should post the countdown until you win gold because what if you don't win?” But I know I'm going to win. Doing the opposite would be me admitting that there's fear or doubt in my mind. You have to speak things with conviction. You have to say it with confidence. You have to speak as if you already have it and then those things will be attracted to you.
