“This is the precipice of something”: Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech, TrackTown USA host screening of Adaptive documentary series at Hayward Field
Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech at the “Adaptive” screening at Hayward Field, just days before the start of the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships. Photo by Tyler DeWaard.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Ezra Frech is used to the big screen.
He’s a business of cinematic arts major at the University of Southern California. His favorite movie is “Gladiator.” He’s been before the eyes of the world too, as a two-time Paralympic gold medalist. Usually, though, the screens aren’t this large.
The 20-year-old walks into Hayward Field for the first time on the evening of July 28. Just beyond the steeplechase pit, plastered onto the towering, 5,080-square-foot Experience Board is Frech, mid-flight in the long jump next to the title of his documentary series, Adaptive.
“It’s bigger in person, definitely,” his father, Clayton, says to Ezra as they step onto the track.
The final episode of Frech’s Peacock series was to be shown on that screen later on Monday evening. He’s an executive producer for the three-episode premiere, which follows four athletes — Frech included — up to the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, where he won 100-meter and high jump gold medals.
Left to right: Elijah Frech, Bahar Soomekh, Ezra Frech, Clayton Frech, and Gabriel Frech. Photo by Tyler DeWaard.
“It’s pretty epic,” Ezra says in between photos — Point to the board, his mother, Bahar, implores Ezra and his brothers, Gabriel and Elijah. “It’s quite surreal.”
His phone has been blowing up all day — more than usual for the teenager with 600,000-plus followers on TikTok and Instagram. People have been watching. Frech has been flying from Los Angeles to Eugene ahead of the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships, where he’s entered in the high jump, long jump and 100m. Now, he finally gets to stop and look at the result.
“This is the precipice of something,” he says, leaning against the outfield fence.
Frech is a T63-category athlete, which includes athletes with above-the-knee amputations — he was born without part of his left leg and fingers on his left hand. He also isn’t new to the spotlight. He’s aware why his story is interesting, and he’s determined to increase it. He says that clips in which he shows his prosthetic leg increase in viewership by hundreds of percents over other videos.
“People are naturally interested in my disability, and they're naturally interested by disability in sports,” he says. “It's just not exposed to enough people.”
His TikTok series, in which he counted down to the day he believed he would win a gold medal in Paris, went viral. He was filming Adaptive at the same time. He believed in the broad appeal, not because he wants people to “feel any sort of pity for the athletes…we’re not a charity case.”
“The reality is, it's f–ing entertaining,” he says. “We have the best athletes on the planet that just happen to have a physical disability. You see dudes running at 20-plus miles an hour with blades and jumping 20-plus feet in the long jump and doing this in these insane stuff with the physical disability. That is naturally entertaining.”
Frech welcomes the crowd. He introduces his project with a gregarious grin and implores them to share the series on social media before retreating to the back of the patio. He’s surrounded by his family when the episode begins to play.
He’s calm as he watches, easy-moving between family members as they whisper to each other. When he wins the 100m final, the camera cuts to him on the edge of the track, mouthing “What the f— just happened?” to the lens.
He cracks a smile. He’s a different level of person on the track, Ezra says. To explain, he goes back to “Gladiator.”
“I need it to be life or death, like a gladiator energy when I go compete, because I feel like that’s where you get the most out of yourself, when it matters that much.”
“There's something so almost animalistic about the gladiator who has to fight to survive,” Frech says. “And I like to think of (myself) when I compete in the same light. I need it to be life or death, like a gladiator energy when I go compete, because I feel like that's where you get the most out of yourself, when it matters that much.”
It’s still Ezra underneath. “I don’t know if I’ve settled on an alter ego yet,” he says at a panel later that night. “I’m very confident in the way I prepare now. I think you become a higher version of yourself when you’re out on the track.”
The Frech family foundation, Angel City Sports, was founded in 2013. Since then, they’ve hosted the Angel City Games, which they say are one of the largest adaptive sporting events in the U.S. alongside more than 250 adaptive sports clinics every year. He’s shared moments with kids he’s impacted. It’s more moments like these — ones that land a punch and light fires under people — that matter, he says.
Frech, leaning against the fence, looks back up at the board.
“It makes everything worth it,” he says. “You do it for the impact, right? That's what I do everything for, to rewire the way society sees people with disabilities.
“This is the first step, right?”
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Tyler DeWaard, TrackTown USA
