Two weeks after the Olympics concluded in Paris, the Paralympians descended on the City of Love. Though Team USA couldn’t land themselves atop the Paralympics table, they did win over 105 medals during the competition, including 36 gold medals. Two of those came courtesy of track-and-field athlete, Ezra Frech, and partly from the blessings of Shaquille O’Neal.
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When the 19-year-old was interviewed by US Weekly following his historic performance, he revealed that Shaq reached out on Instagram and wished him, “Love you brother, go out there and win gold.”
While it isn’t uncommon for Big Diesel to show love to Team USA’s athletes, Frech caught the four-time champion’s eye with a previous Instagram post. Five days before the teenager won his medals, he shared a story from the Paralympic Village on social media.
Frech was wearing a Shaquille O’Neal jersey, and it earned him some flak from his teammates, who thought they should be wearing Team USA apparel instead. Ezra Frech quipped back to his teammates that wearing Shaq’s Lakers jersey was “pretty USA enough” for him.
The Los Angeles native added in his social media post, “I love Shaquille O’Neal. He dominates, I’m trying to dominate and just wanted to, I don’t know, maybe harness some of his energy.”
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Thankfully for Ezra, facing the ire of his teammates was worth it, as his Instagram video soon found its way to Big Diesel. During his interview with US Weekly, he shared,
“Shaq did send me a video, wishing me good luck, telling me to win the gold. And maybe I felt so motivated by it, I had to do it twice.”
Frech participated in the high jump, long jump, and 100m sprint at the Paris Paralympic Games. He secured gold in the sprint on September 2nd and less than a day later, the 19-year-old set a new Paralympic record in the high jump T63 event by clearing 1.94m.
His dominance in France wasn’t surprising, at least not to the fans who followed his journey on Instagram. The confident teenager began a countdown 100 days before the Paralympics. He wasn’t counting down to the tournament, he was counting how many days were left until he won gold.
Frech secured his first gold medal on Day 98 of his countdown. He previously secured gold at the 2023 World Para Championships and, in 2019, at the World Para Junior Championships.
