US Paralympic star Ezra Frech aims to take stigma out of disability
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Ezra Frech of United States celebrates after winning gold in the T63 high jump at the Paris Paralympics.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
PARIS – Ezra Frech’s dream is to become the most successful Paralympian in history and with two golds at the age of 19 he is well on his way – but his goal is to use his high profile to “destigmatise” disability.
The American track and field athlete was born with missing bones in his left leg and just one finger on his left hand – at age two he had to have his left leg amputated and one of the toes from that foot transplanted onto his hand.
“When I was younger I used to be really upset why was I born like this and get really down on myself,” he said previously.
“Then I realised as I got older I was born this way and (there was) no need to sulk in the sadness.”
Instead, he resolved to “make the most of my life, be the best athlete and student I can”, the T63 high-jump world-record holder added.
He easily won the event in a Paralympic mark of 1.94m in Paris on Sept 3, having claimed a surprise gold in the men’s T63 100m in 12.06sec the night before.
His parents – father Clayton and Iranian-born mother Bahar Soomekh – readily embraced his positivity, but his mother said he was named Ezra for a reason.
“It was hard, I have to admit, my first baby and I had never heard of a child being born missing limbs,” she said.
“It was a complete and total shock for me but there was this belief that there was a purpose and reason for this child to be here, hence why we named him Ezra. Ezra means to help, to teach.”
Her son has lived up to his name. Along with his parents, they created Angel City Sports, a not-for-profit entity which holds some 250 adaptive sports clinics a year for disabled athletes.
Frech is mindful of “how many barriers there are to engaging in disabled sport”, such as prosthetic blades costing US$15,000 (S$19,600) and expensive racing wheelchairs.
“After all, children with a disability “cannot just roll up to a YMCA and play basketball”.
“I am most proud of me and my family organising Angel City Sports because sport can last only so long but the impacts it makes on children and veterans’ lives lasts forever,” he said.
Frech, who has two younger brothers, experienced just how sport can provide a safe haven for those with disabilities.
“Roughly 15 per cent of Americans have some form of disability, (but) everywhere you go you felt like an outsider,” he said. “I was the only kid at school with one leg and I was stared at, had fingers pointed at...
“Sport was almost like an escape from all that and it is somewhere I did not feel different any more.”
Hence why Frech wants to use sport as a vehicle for changing long-held cliches about disabled people.
“Life with a physical disability is really difficult, yes, (but) my overarching goals are to normalise disability, to change the way society views disability, destigmatise it, take away this taboo,” he added.
“I believe that through proper representation, promotion, and awareness of the Paralympic Games, children around the world won’t have to be abandoned by their parents just because they were born different.” AFP
