Ezra Frech, US Long Jumper and High Jumper

detours brought to you by Sports and spokes the magazine for wheelchair sports and recreation at only 19 and already with one par Olympics under his belt Ezra fre has quickly become one of the best single leg amputee long and high jumpers in the world all right all right Ezra so you uh you had a great jump today I heard uh I heard the Roar of the crowd you you jumped basically 23 ft you I I heard you talking to the other people about you know you finally eclip 7 MERS this was a big a a big performance today I've been chasing s MERS for years and I've been so close I've been so close I've had foul after foul after foul and to finally punch through today to finally get to that next level today to finally break through at paralympic trials very special and to do it on my sixth attempt I mean this was a tough competition I was I was battling a lot we were fighting a lot there was a lot that I was that I was dealing with wasn't working perfectly but that's what being a paralympian is that's what being an Adaptive athlete is all about adapting figuring it out and then overcoming and that's that's what I did yeah and not only were you dealing with heat today but you were also seemingly dealing with a headwind too at least a Crossing headwind so you had a lot of challenges in the pit today yeah the wind was all over the place one time is it's a headwind then we have a crazy tailwind and then it's coming from the side and it's unbelievably hot you know the leg is slipping off I'm I'm having to take it off after every jump which is then slightly impacting the run a bit so some of my runs were on point some weren't it was just all over the place but listen I adapted I overcame I battled through and then six attempt came around I remember sitting there thinking to myself am I not who I say I am I say I'm a 7 meter jumper I've been saying that for years let me pull this one off sixth attempt in the fire in the heat the most pressure and I made it happen excellent so long and high tomorrow is going to be the high jump out of the two do you have a preference is there one that if I mean obviously you'd like to medal in both but if you had to medal in one which one would you prefer to medal in you know hyp is my favorite event probably it has been just cuz it's the the event that I'm the best at it's been my bread and butter for so many years I you know I'm the world champion in the high jump I'm the world record holder in the high jump and without a doubt I will be standing on the top of the podium in the high jump I will win gold in the high jump um but then I also think it is extremely likely that I can pull off a medal in the long jump as well so I think high jump I'm going to gold and then long jump I will win a medal uh but I don't think I would be setting the bar too high no pun intended to say that I could medal in both events as a single leg BK above or a above KN AK right uh you have certain different you know intricate things that have to take place when you're jumping in you know in either event long or high uh let's go ahead and talk about because today was long jump how uh how do you prepare for that and what are the special factors that that may contribute to your success you know long people people see ampute T's long jump and they think wow it looks so easy they just run and bounce there is so much involved in making sure that I complete a jump successfully when you're running as in above the KNE amput I have no control over the lower part of my leg this literally swings I can't control it it's only what I do to the top that then controls the bottom so when I'm running one of our biggest challenges we're up against is sometimes if I place the blade centim off centimet to the left centimet to the right even just literally two Dees angled out or in it could throw off the entire run every step has to be perfect and I'm trying to be perfect with a part of my body that I have no direct control over so there is so much involved but really learning to be comfortable on this prosthetic I mean I'm lucky I've grown up as an ampute so I'm I'm so accustomed to the prosthetic it's second nature to me it's as if it's an extension of my body and that's a real benefit when I get on the track and then I have to make sure every step I'm taking is placed properly when talking about the prosthetic uh you know you got you got one of the legs right there if you could go ahead and pick that up we we can talk a little bit about it uh first of all uh are there certain standards that come along with um the the amount of flex to a leg so does the IPC do they have certain rulings in terms of how much carbon can be there you know to perhaps influence jump yeah basically the the regulations that they have is that every blade that that anyone jumps on has to be made commercially available and so there is there is obviously people who iterate and try things and try to set up their alignment differently that's a part of the Innovation process but as far as the blade goes all the blades are pretty standard all the blades that the my competitors compete on and I compete on are just about the same not much of a difference it's more so the force you're able to put into it how you put that Force the alignment set up so you can produce that force that impacts most things and then the truth is you know a lot a lot of it is what you put into the blade people think that technology is just this you know this magical ride to far distances but the truth is this doesn't work unless I work and I put the force into it so that's that's that's something most people don't fully understand where you attach the leg to your body do you deal a lot with chafing Soares and injuries is that is that an area where you're injury-prone Soares definitely a lot of athletes have that I've been dealing with one and the leadup to this I SP had to spend two days off of the prosthetic to heal one up I mean the truth is you think it's literally just an enclosed environment around a part of the body that is working so hard so naturally When you sweat and then a lineer rubs and you can create infections or chafe or Cuts or blisters that stuff's very common I deal with that a lot uh but for you you know today out there on the track we've been trying this new thing with baby powder to stop the leg from sweating so much so I'm basically drenching the leg in baby powder and then Pat it all around and then when I put the prosthetic on I'm not sweating as much as I usually would or I use I use certain anti-perspirant deodorants to help stop the sweat there's ways to minimize it but that's definitely something that a lot of amputees face so you know I think that people have a uh you know a misunderstanding that all ampute or all people who use any type of a prosthetic leg are all the same but you do deal with a certain um you know difficulty with that hinge the hinge and and being above the knee that that really adds a complexity I mean there you just you just couldn't jump with guys who are below the knee that's why that's why it's different right that's why the paral Olympics are so beautiful we have our whole classification system so that it's not unfair if I jump against a guy who's below the knee he will jump better than me that's what will happen because he has more control over the lower part of his leg and so for me I'm obviously only competing against above the knees and that's what's that's what's beautiful about the system of fairness that we have in the Paralympics what type of cross training besides I mean obviously you get your jumps in you work out on the track hitting the gym nutrition what kinds of things are you doing I mean I I honestly My Philosophy is optimize everything it's easy to work hard when you're on the track it's easy to work hard when you walk into the weight room and just do the workout how do you optimize everything in your life to make sure that weight room session that track session is 100% optimized that's what I am I'm a holistic Optimizer sleep recovery nutrition training weightlifting meditation visualization everything there is not a single stone unturned in my preparation and during the offseason obviously includes a lot of pool workouts plank sports with my friends basketball pickle ball spikeball just being a normal teenager for for a small period of time but then once we lock in we lock in I haven't had a single bit of of added sugar in any of my meals since probably November I have gotten 10 to 12 hours of sleep every single night all the way up until this competition and I will all the way through Paris every morning I get up with a 20-minute visualization and and manifestation of everything that I want to do in Paris everything in my life is set up and optimized to win gold and that's why I will no one else is sacrificing as much as me it's as simple as that asra a lot of life is about getting the word out there and paying it forward being a mentor you and your dad have started a you know a a great nonprofit in the Los Angeles area Angel City Sports talk a little bit about uh what it is that you're doing there and how you're giving back about a decade ago my family and I we started this nonprofit Angel City Sports because we recognize that there weren't any adaptive Sports opportunities in Southern California I mean you think about a community that is 15% of the population that's 50 million Americans 1 billion people globally yet in Southern California there's no adaptive Sports opportunities you live with the physical disability you just can't play sports obviously there's there's more barriers to entry for this community right someone in a wheelchair can't roll up to the YMCA and play play wheelchair basketball they need a specific chair they need a specific game set up for them and so recognizing the lack of opportunity we punched in right there and then now have provided sports equipment training and competitive opportunities for the community for almost a decade now providing 20,000 sport experiences for a year we're continuing to grow and have now become one of the bigger adaptive Sports organizations in the country which is really cool to see [Music] n [Music]