Two-time Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech is using his turn on DANCING WITH THE STARS to give children with disabilities something he wanted growing up: someone like them on television.
“If you have a disability, you should be able to turn on the TV screen and see people like you,” Frech told PEOPLE.
The 21-year-old spoke with the outlet during a break from rehearsals for Season 35, where he is competing with professional dancer Daniella Karagach. He described both the excitement of the ballroom and the childhood experiences that make this opportunity personal.
PEOPLE reported that he “was born without his left shin bone and left knee and had one finger on his left hand. At age 3, he underwent surgery to remove his lower left leg and transplant his big left toe onto his left hand to give him a thumb.”
Frech said strangers stared, pointed and whispered when he was young, leaving him feeling painfully conspicuous. He credits his family’s support and the ordinary rhythm of playing sports with helping him through those difficult years.
“Basketball, soccer, football, whatever was in season, I was playing sports all the time, and that gave me an escape, a place where I could separate myself from the identity of always being a kid with a disability and just be one of the guys,” he said.
Related: Paralympian Ezra Frech is ‘Grateful’ to Represent United States
That sense of belonging eventually became a calling beyond his own competitions. Frech and his father, Clayton Frech, helped create Angel City Sports after a trip to an adaptive sports event in Oklahoma prompted them to ask why similar opportunities were not more readily available in Southern California.
The nonprofit’s own account of its beginnings dates that conversation to June 2013. Today, its mission centers on free, year-round adaptive sports opportunities for children, adults and veterans with physical differences or visual impairments, with community and connection alongside athletic participation.
Frech told PEOPLE that creating the organization remains his greatest achievement, even with two Paralympic titles behind him.
His competitive credentials are substantial. World Para Athletics reported that he won the men’s high jump T63 at the 2024 Paris Paralympics with a 1.94-meter leap, following his gold in the 100 meters.
ABC’s official cast biography described his work teaching above-knee amputees to run for the first time, connecting his own sporting success to practical encouragement for others.
Now the challenge involves choreography as well as athleticism. Frech told PEOPLE that choosing between his walking and running prosthetics while learning the DWTS routines takes trial and error. He’s the fourth ever amputee to compete on the show, and he remembered DWTS as a rare place where he encountered disability representation in mainstream entertainment. Appearing on the show now gives him a chance to continue that legacy for another generation of viewers.
“I never would have thought I’d fall so in love with dance, but I’m enjoying every second,” Frech told PEOPLE.
For parents watching with their children, his story offers a natural conversation about how to treat someone who looks or moves differently: notice the person, not just the difference. Frech is pursuing scores and new steps, but the opportunity he keeps returning to is simpler — helping another child feel that there is room for them, too.
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