American Ezra Frech completes incredible Paralympic gold double

By Amy Woodyatt and Wayne Sterling, CNN

(CNN) — American Ezra Frech completed a remarkable golden double on Tuesday at the Paris Paralympics after he won the men’s high jump by clearing a height of 1.94 meters, setting a new Paralympic record that was just shy of his own world record.

On Monday, the 19-year-old earned a dramatic gold in the men’s 100-meter T63 sprint – coming from behind to win in a photo finish to beat Denmark’s Daniel Wagner by just 0.02 seconds.

Frech was born with congenital limb differences and ran on his first blades aged four. The future star was soon playing soccer, basketball and running track, according to Olympics.com.

By age 11, after watching the Rio 2016 Paralympics, he vowed to his friends that he would make it to Tokyo 2020.

“Everyone said I was crazy,” he told Sports Illustrated ahead of the Games. “It was statistically unlikely. I mean, an 11-year-old saying he’s gonna make the Games in four years is utterly ridiculous.”

He made good on his promise, but didn’t place, finishing fifth in the T63 high jump and missing out on a medal.

“That is undoubtedly one of the most devastating moments of my entire life,” Frech said to SI about his experience in Tokyo. “It’s easy to fail in private. It’s hard to fail on the world stage where everyone sees it.”

After years of training, Frech surprised even himself by coming back from a slow start in the 100m to bag his first gold medal – especially as he “was treating this as a warm-up for the high jump, to get the blood flowing and have a good race.”

“I’m still taking it in right now. I was definitely not expecting to go out there and win,” he said after the race.

For the high jump, in which he holds the world record, he cleared a new Paralympic record height of 1.94 meters – 14 centimeters higher than his jump in Tokyo (1.8m) – and claimed his second gold medal of the Paris Paralympics.

Still, Frech has his sights set on something more.

“I would trade in every medal, every world record, every national championship title if it meant I could normalize disability in the process,” he said. “That’s what I’m about. I just know that those accolades are a step to reach that larger goal.”

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