00:00As he committed to his final jump, the surgeries, fractured bones, broken prosthetics and the intense, unforgiving training he subjected
00:06himself to was all about to finally pay off.
00:10But as he launched himself over the bar, he failed.
00:15Ezra Freck sat back down with the rain pelting down around him and he watched as his teammate Sam Pru
00:21lived his dream.
00:22Sam celebrated and Ezra congratulated him, but he found it hard to hide the jealousy in his eyes.
00:28Ezra felt like he'd let down his parents, his friends and his team who had been there at his side
00:34supporting him all this way.
00:36However, when he made his way back home, Ezra downloaded the photo of the three medalists and he said it
00:41as his phone's wallpaper, along with the words, never again.
00:46And then he got to work.
00:47After all, the Paris Paralympics were only four more years away and winning a medal in the Paralympics had been
00:53a dream of Ezra's ever since watching the Rio Paralympics in 2016.
00:57At the time, he was already a remarkably great athlete, even with his limb differences.
01:02When Ezra got his first prosthetic running leg, he quickly started dominating in para-athletic sprinting and long jump events.
01:08But he proved to be especially adept at high jump, where he even managed to outperform the able-bodied athletes
01:14at local competitions.
01:16So when Ezra did eventually make it to the 2020 Paralympics, he was hopeful that he could squeeze a medal
01:21out of one of his disciplines.
01:22However, with fifth place in the high jump and eighth place in the long jump, it was clear he still
01:28had work to do.
01:29Over the following years, Ezra continued training.
01:31And in 2023, he shocked the world championships by shattering the world record by five centimeters, setting a height of
01:391.95 meters.
01:41And then at the US Paralympic trials, he smashed his own world record again, jumping a height of 1.97
01:48meters.
01:48As the Paralympics began, Ezra was scheduled to compete in three events.
01:53The long jump on Saturday, the 100-meter sprint on Monday, and finally, the high jump on Tuesday.
01:59Ezra thought that Tuesday would be the day he would win his first ever Paralympic gold medal.
02:04But Ezra was wrong.
02:06They all got away pretty well.
02:07Mabote also.
02:08But in the outside, Parton is absolutely flying.
02:11They'll start to haul him in, though.
02:12Who's going to catch him?
02:13It looks like Wadner and Fretz has got it.
02:16He can't believe it.
02:18He won his first ever Paralympic gold in the 100 meters, an event he considered as a warm-up to
02:24his high jump final the following day.
02:26But as ecstatic as he was, he knew that he couldn't let this make him complacent.
02:31It was still out for redemption in the high jump.
02:33And as the following day's battle wore on, and Ezra attempted to clear the highest bar of the day, a
02:38Paralympic record height of 1.94 meters.
02:51He went home with two gold medals.
