Ezra Frech received a sweet surprise from the Avengers. The 19-year-old double Paralympic champion from Los Angeles got a congratulatory call from Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo, who played the roles of Captain America, Black Widow and Hulk respectively.

In the video call, Evans, Johansson, and Ruffalo greeted Frech as they jointly said,

“…..So I hear you walking out with some hardware [Chris Evans],

Which is incredibly awesome, but you are the true superhero, so I just wanted to say congratulations. Go Team USA! [Scarlett Johansson]”

Ezra Frech couldn’t believe his luck as he mentioned,

“That is crazy. I can’t even believe they even know who I am.”

Born to Clayton Frech, who originally hails from Germany, and former Iranian actress Bahar Soormekh, Ezra Frech was born without most of his left leg and had fingers missing on his left hand. He received his first prosthetic leg when he was less than a year old.

However, that didn’t stop Ezra Frech from playing basketball, baseball, soccer, and karate before he even turned eight. He later switched to athletics and honed his skills in track and field. After graduating from the Brentwood School, Frech joined the track and field at the University of Southern California.

He was barely sixteen when he made his Paralympic debut at the Tokyo Paralympics. He finished fifth in the high jump T63 category and eighth in the long jump T63 category.

How did Ezra Frech fare at the Paris Paralympics 2024?

Ezra Frech entered the 2024 Paris Paralympics hoping to prove his mettle in more than one event. Apart from the high jump and the long jump events in the T63 category (where the athlete has a disability in at least one leg), Frech also participated in the 100m event of the same category.

With a personal best of 12.06 seconds, Ezra Frech won the gold medal in the 100m event. However, all eyes were on the high jump event, where the American para-athlete had created a new world record of 1.97m during the US Paralympic trials held in July 2024.

Ezra Frech was not only facing his teammate and defending Paralympic champion Sam Grewe, but also two stalwarts from India: Mariyappan Thangavelu, who had won the gold medal at the Rio Paralympics and had recently defeated Frech to win a gold medal at the World Para Athletics Championships, and Sharad Kumar, the bronze medalist at Rio.

While Ezra Frech couldn’t break his world record, he still set a new Paralympic record of 1.94m. Sharad Kumar of India gave him a tough fight, but he could only manage a best attempt of 1.88m. Mariyappan Thangavelu, who had won the silver medal at the Tokyo Paralympics, managed a best attempt of 1.85m to land his third consecutive Paralympic medal- a bronze. Sam Grewe could only jump to a height of 1.72m and finished last among the eight finalists.

Ezra Frech improved on his performance in the long jump event at the Paris Paralympics. However, his best attempt of 6.58m could only give him a fifth position at best.