(Northern Marianas Sports Association) — A smiling Tania Tan crossed the finish line of the women’s 10,000m race at the 2025 Pacific Mini Games in Palau on Friday morning — and she had more than one reason to smile.

She bagged the gold medal, defeating a tough competitor from New Caledonia, and in doing so, delivered the Northern Mariana Islands its first-ever athletics gold medal in Pacific Mini Games history. The victory was also a redemption moment for Tan, who missed the podium during the 2022 Mini Games on home soil.

Tan’s gold, combined with Lyle Andrew’s win in the men’s hammer throw and Isaiah Aleksenko’s triumph in the pool, made Friday the most successful single day for Team Marianas in Palau, with three gold medals.

The 24-year-old distance runner completed the 25-lap race around the Palau National Track and Field in 38:03.57, finishing well ahead of Natalia Prado Alfonso of New Caledonia, who clocked in at 38:29.15 — about 100 meters behind. Tahiti’s Louise Grossgogeat took bronze with a time of 39:48.01.

Four other runners were still entering their final lap when Tan crossed the finish line.

Record day in athletics

Also topping the medal podium was Lyle Andrew, who dominated the men’s hammer throw with a mark of 33.06 meters, well ahead of Fiji’s Glen Finau (29.63m). Guam’s Alonzo Acosta placed third with a 23.62m throw.

Five other athletes competing for Northern Marianas Athletics delivered strong performances, with three setting new national records.

Maria Quitugua set a new NMI javelin record with a throw of 37.30m.

Kaithlyn Chavez set two national records on Saturday — first in the 400m with a time of 1:01.36, and then in the 800m at 2:26.83.

In the men’s 10,000m, Nash Santos broke one of the longest-standing national records with his 36:30.64 finish, surpassing the 1994 mark of 36:39.7 held by John Hoffman.

Other results

Simon Tang reached the 400m hurdles finals with a time of 1:00.97.

Theodore Rodgers ran 11.88 seconds in the 100m qualifying heat.

The athletics competition took a break Sunday and resumes Monday. Scheduled to compete:

Tan and Santos in the 5,000m.

Tang in the 110m hurdles.

Rodgers in the 200m.

Andrew in the discus throw.

Chavez in the 400m finals.

Top Team in Micronesia

With 2 golds from athletics and 3 more medals from weightlifting on Saturday, Team Marianas raised its total to 9 golds, 7 silvers, and 10 bronzes.

Joey Colisao won a silver (total) and bronze (snatch) in the men’s 110+kg class, while Jason Limes added a bronze in the clean and jerk in the same division — closing out NMI’s campaign in weightlifting.

With 26 total medals, Team Marianas remains in the Top 10 of the overall medal standings and ranks first among Micronesian nations, surpassing:

Marshall Islands (5 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze)

Palau (4-17-13)

Nauru (3-22-8)

FSM (3-2-3)

Kiribati (3-1-3)

Guam (2-3-4)

NMI is still in contention in beach volleyball, 3×3 basketball, athletics, and triathlon.

In beach volleyball, Andrew Johnson and Logan Mister advanced to the semifinals after defeating:

Vanuatu’s Fletcher Uma Abel and Stivano Banga, 21-10, 21-16

PNG’s Richard Batari and Tonnie Gima, 21-16, 21-16

In baseball, the NMI was scheduled to play Palau in a makeup game on Sunday night, with the winner advancing to the final against Guam.

Swimming, va’a, and weightlifting teams return

NMI swimmers are scheduled to return home Monday morning, bringing with them 6 golds, 3 silvers, and 4 bronzes, along with a handful of national records.

Isaiah Aleksenko capped off his dominant run with a sixth gold medal, winning the 100m backstroke in 52.55 seconds on Friday night.

Joining the swim team on the return flight to Saipan are the va’a and weightlifting squads.

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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Matt Cain, throughout his long tenure as a load-bearing pillar in the San Francisco Giants rotation, adhered to a personal code whenever he’d hand over the baseball at the end of a day’s work.

No matter how well he pitched at the Giants’ waterfront ballpark, no matter how few runs scored on his watch, no matter how comfortably the home team was ahead and no matter how loudly the crowd cheered his effort, the stoic right-hander refused to tip his cap if he left a runner on base. Something about it just didn’t feel right.

Logan Webb has a little Matt Cain in him.

“I wish I had given a wave or something,” said Webb, who walked off the mound with two on and two out in the seventh inning at Sutter Health Park on Saturday night to the kind of ovation reserved for hometown heroes. “It’s always awkward in those moments, and I don’t know why. But I felt the love from the Sacramento crowd. It was awesome to pitch at home.”

Because their Las Vegas-bound former Bay Area rivals are carpetbagging it in the Central Valley for at least three seasons, the Giants are playing a major-league series in a minor-league stadium. It happens to be the Triple-A ballpark down the road from where Webb grew up in Rocklin. He fidgeted in his seat here many times as a kid, watching the Sacramento River Cats when they were still an A’s affiliate.

Maybe something happens when so many of your formative memories of professional baseball come in a ballpark that doesn’t have a second deck and where every seat is close to the action. Maybe there’s less emotional distance between you and the players. It might be one of the reasons Webb has remained so grounded and so rocksteady since he established himself as one of the league’s best pitchers in 2021. You can’t injure yourself by falling off a pedestal when you never put yourself on one.

Webb delivered another of his typical starts on an otherwise atypical night. He pumped strikes and mixed his pitches; a Giants lineup that included a freshly activated Matt Chapman and a resurgent Willy Adames did the rest in a 7-2 victory.

The crowd salutes its hometown hero. (Darren Yamashita / Imagn Images)

The legions of Giants fans who barely had a moment to cheer here in Friday night’s 11-2 loss came out of the auditory woodwork this time. But the sellout crowd of 12,298 could be better described as pro-Webb than pro-Giants. The moment Webb walked out of the bullpen in the bottom of the first inning, he was showered with shouts of “Go Rocklin” and “Go Thunder” from fans who more than likely once applauded the touchdown drives he directed in high school.

Webb’s cheering section for home games in San Francisco is so vocal that his coaches would tease him about it. So you knew his loyalists would be out in full force when he started a game in his own backyard. You can’t call it a cheering section when the support stretches from pole to pole.

“Every time I got an out or a strikeout, it felt like the whole crowd was cheering me on,” Webb said.

Webb continues to raise his own high bar in what’s turning into the best season of his career. He reclaimed the major-league lead with 120 1/3 innings, and his 133 strikeouts are second only to Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler among National League pitchers. Giants manager Bob Melvin referred to Webb as a no-brainer to make his second NL All-Star team.

He completed at least six innings for the eighth consecutive start and continues to be a stabilizing force every time he takes the mound. That’s precisely what the Giants needed one night after Melvin questioned the team’s focus in a sloppy loss.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Giants played several of those unfocused games over the past four weeks without Chapman, who sustained a significantly sprained hand while getting picked off a month ago. The team was missing more than its leading home run hitter and Gold Glove third baseman. Chapman is also Melvin’s conduit to the clubhouse and the unofficial captain who sets high standards for his teammates.

“That’s what he’s been about his whole career,” said Melvin, who also managed Chapman with the A’s in Oakland. “From the minute he’s gotten here, he embraces the leadership role. He plays a certain style of baseball that we want to play. So it’s huge to have him back and not just the production part. It’s what he does on the field, it’s his presence in the dugout, in the clubhouse. It’s a big part of who we are.”

The Giants’ lineup without Chapman lacked continuity, as well. Even after the stunning June 15 trade with the Boston Red Sox that netted Rafael Devers, one of the best left-handed hitters in the game, the lineup over the past couple of weeks competed like a group that had dressed itself in the dark. The expectation now is that with Devers and Chapman in the middle of the order, and Casey Schmitt expected to become the everyday second baseman Monday when he’s eligible to be activated from the injured list, a deeper and more stable lineup will be able to win its share of games without requiring near perfection from a rotation firmly led by Webb and Robbie Ray and a bullpen that has been baseball’s best in the first half.

“I’d like to think I can make an impact,” Chapman said before the game. “Finally, we get to play together (with Devers). We’re one step closer to everybody being together and getting comfortable playing with each other and to start playing the baseball that we expect to play.”

But there’s no thinking more wishful than “everybody being together” when you’re dealing with a 26-man roster and a 162-game season. The next injury or inconsistent stretch is always right around the corner. Not an hour passed after Chapman’s pregame session with reporters before there was a roster update: left-hander Erik Miller to the injured list with a left elbow sprain.

The news wasn’t too surprising. Something seemed off with Miller most of the year. There had to be occult forces behind his 1.50 ERA in 36 games because Miller totaled more walks and hit batters (22) than strikeouts (20) in 30 innings. His 14 percent drop in strikeout percentage is the largest year-over-year decrease among all major-league pitchers who’ve thrown at least 20 innings. Yet Miller remained an important part of the Giants’ late-inning mix, and he was a huge key to Wednesday’s win at Arizona when he entered Landen Roupp’s bases-loaded, no-out situation and limited the damage to one run on a sacrifice fly.

A sprained elbow is often a precursor to Tommy John surgery, but Melvin said Miller’s MRI did not show major structural damage, and the hope is that he will recover with a rest interval. For now, the Giants selected the contract of a familiar face, left-hander Scott Alexander, whom they recently signed on a minor-league deal, to replace Miller on the roster. Joey Lucchesi is another lefty in the bullpen, but his role for as long as he’s here is to pitch multiple innings. Former Detroit Tigers lefty Matt Gage signed a minor-league contract with the Giants on Saturday. Triple-A left-handed starter Carson Whisenhunt could be introduced to the big leagues in a relief role, too.

The trade deadline is more than three weeks away, and a team’s needs tend to fluctuate, but left-handed relief almost certainly has sped to the top of club president Buster Posey’s list.

If only the Giants could clone Randy Rodriguez, who replaced Webb and stranded both inherited runners. Rodriguez is unscored upon in 36 of 38 appearances and is the Giants’ top All-Star candidate after Webb and Ray. An argument could be made that, given his standing among his relief cohort, Rodriguez is the most deserving Giant on the team.

“The numbers say he’s been the best reliever in baseball,” said Webb, who also lobbied for Tyler Rogers to become a first-time All-Star after several seasons in which he merited a place. “I really hope he gets it.”

2 at-bats, 2 2-RBI singles for #2 pic.twitter.com/c5nVQyLQkR

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) July 6, 2025

The Giants will play two formidable opponents in the final homestand before the All-Star break when the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers come to San Francisco, but there is still a chance to create the momentum they couldn’t gather while struggling with their demons in the past several series against sub-.500 teams. Adames hasn’t been out of action like Chapman, but his bat hasn’t made an impact for most of the season. It’s starting to heat up now. He hit a pair of two-run singles Saturday, including a crisp line drive in the first inning after A’s right-hander Luis Severino hit Heliot Ramos and Chapman with pitches.

Both hit batters glared back at the mound. Ramos has been hit 11 times this year after getting hit just twice last season. Chapman didn’t appear to appreciate getting plunked in his first plate appearance after missing a month with a hand injury. A week ago, Webb expressed exasperation with the number of Giants batters getting hit and levied a not-so-veiled threat when he said that “the game finds a way to even itself out.”

Webb couldn’t risk getting ejected Saturday night and didn’t hit any batters in retaliation. But it sure was interesting that he made two kneecap pitches in the fourth inning — a 1-0 sinker to Jacob Wilson and an 0-1 sinker to Brent Rooker — that missed their spots by a lot more than his usual location mistakes.

It was one more reminder: Some of Webb’s most fervent fans never have to buy a ticket to see him pitch. They can watch from the dugout for free.

(Top photo: Darren Yamashita / Imagn Images)

In a recent interview with B92, Dusan Mandic, widely regarded as the world’s top water polo player, spoke about how his friendship with Nikola Jokic first started.

Their connection began at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. At the time, Mandic was the second-youngest player on Serbia’s water polo team, while Jokic was the youngest member of head coach Aleksandar Djordjevic’s basketball squad.

“Nikola Jokic was also one of the youngest guys on his team, so he would, let’s say, come over and hang out with us,” said Mandic.

“When you’re the youngest on a team, you usually have a lot of small duties that aren’t exactly fun, but of course, you do them. So he found his place with us. He felt comfortable, and we enjoyed having him around. It was fun… seeing a guy that big, and yet still a kid. We were both kids back then — we’re close in age. The whole thing was just really nice.”

Recalling a memorable moment, Mandic added:

“I was the youngest on our team, so I was just watching them play PES — I couldn’t even get a turn. But he destroyed all of our best players. I remember no one could even get close to beating him.”

While they don’t speak daily, the respect between them remains strong:

“We don’t talk on a daily basis, but there’s huge mutual respect. He’s a legend — a guy who went to America and has been dominating for years. He won a championship, three MVPs, and honestly could have won two more. Everyone deals with invisible forces along the way. For Nikola, team success and team trophies are what matter most. I truly wish him all the best in Denver. There’s real respect between us.”

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EZRA FRECH PLACES two black boxes in his backpack and jumps on his electric scooter to ride a few blocks to the University of Southern California, where he is about to give his professors a very good reason for having missed the first three weeks of the semester.

The boxes contain the two gold medals the 19-year-old just won at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, in the 100-meter and the high jump for the T63 classification (athletes with a single-leg amputation above the knee).

“It’s USC; they are known for their Olympians,” says Frech, who was born with congenital limb differences. “I know the professors can understand the Olympics, but I wasn’t sure if they even realized the Paralympics were going on.”

As Frech, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, waits at a stoplight on Jefferson Boulevard near downtown Los Angeles, two USC students not-so-subtly whisper, “Is that that Paralympian?” One student takes out her phone and snaps a picture of him crossing the street. By the time Frech arrives at the Cinematic Arts building, multiple people have stopped him to ask for photos.

“I had been recognized before Paris, a little bit, because of the Tokyo Paralympics and my social media where I posted everything from my disability to training to modeling for fashion brands, but never to this extent,” Frech says. “I couldn’t believe it, honestly. It just made me feel like, ‘Wow, this is happening. I’m here for a purpose and reason.'” Frech keeps his gold medals in his backpack for his first few weeks of school, handing them to anyone who wants to put them around their necks.

Frech has been in the national spotlight since the 2020 Tokyo Games, where he was featured in the ads from Team USA and NBC. He’s also one of the faces of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, where his Angel City Sports foundation provides sports clinics and competition opportunities to people with disabilities. With a social media following of more than 250,000, and celebrities such as Selena Gomez reposting his achievements, Frech gained the attention of the fashion world, where he has modeled for designers such as Hugo Boss.

But Paris brought new levels of fame to Frech, who, on his way to class on this clear September day, knows he’s making history just by being on USC’s campus. As the first above-the-knee amputee to be recruited to an NCAA Division I track and field program — let alone the winningest program in the country — Frech’s goal is to show the world that an athlete with a disability can compete against the best college athletes without disabilities.

He embraces the pressure of that goal with USC’s outdoor track and field season just months away. It will be a season in which he’ll struggle to medal as he confronts the challenges of such competition, and where he’ll hear from coaches, teammates and those he has inspired that his effort and determination are what matter the most. He’ll hear those messages, but he’ll also resolve to make the marks.

“For me, this is life or death,” Frech says. “I believe what I do out on the track, my marks, my medals, all impact how the world views disabilities. I genuinely believe my purpose on this Earth is to normalize disability, be an example of what’s possible as an amputee.”

HIGH JUMPER SAM Grewe, now Ezra’s mentor and Team USA teammate, became the first amputee to compete in NCAA Division I track and field when he walked onto Notre Dame’s track and field program in 2019. When Frech was in high school, he realized there weren’t any adaptive programs at the colleges he wanted to attend. So he made it his goal to become the first above-the-knee athlete to be recruited to a Division I program.

“I wanted to do something no one’s ever done before,” Frech says. “Trailblazing is in my DNA. I love pursuing things that seem impossible.”

Frech, who won gold in the high jump at the World Para Athletics Junior Championships at 15 and placed fifth in the high jump at the Tokyo Paralympic Games at 16, reached out to hundreds of NCAA coaches during his junior and senior years at Brentwood School in Los Angeles. “Our current marks to make the squad are seven meters in the long jump and 1.96 meters in the high jump,” one coach wrote to Frech. “We have some guys on the squad who are not quite at those marks yet, but they’re primarily decathletes or have other events.”

Those marks became a recurring theme in the coaches’ responses. “I realized that a lot of it had to do with the numbers alone,” he says. “And although I was trying to do everything to get there, I think it was also a little bit that some coaches weren’t willing to take a risk on a kid who was an amputee. There’s a lot of variables and unknowns with that. And maybe they just didn’t know if I was going to hit them in the time period, or ever.”

At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, 16-year-old Frech placed fifth in the high jump with a personal best 1.80 meters and eighth in the long jump with 5.85 meters. Shortly after, he was jumping 6.20 meters in the long jump and 1.83 meters in the high jump. Between his junior and senior years in high school, Frech raised his marks to 6.86 meters in the long jump and 1.95 meters in the high jump. In 2023, Frech set a world record and earned the gold medal in the men’s high jump T63 category with 1.95 meters at the world championship. Before his Paralympics and worlds experiences, Frech held the title for high jump at the World Para Athletics Junior Championships.

“I needed someone to believe in the vision,” Frech said. “Because this is the coach that I was going to be spending the most important four years of my career with. And if this coach isn’t going to believe in me when I’m on the cusp of accomplishing a specific mark, then how am I going to sit here with this coach and say, ‘I want to win three gold medals in L.A. in 2028 at the Paralympics’?”

The inquiries and rejections went on for nearly six months. Then, in summer of 2023, he heard from USC’s newly hired jumping coach, Jeff Petersmeyer.

“The first time I saw him jump, he just kept making bars,” Petersmeyer said. “He just kept making bars, and I was really impressed. And I was like, ‘Man, this guy’s got some potential.’ You could be the highest high jumper, the further long jumper, but if it’s not a good match, then you’re probably not the right person for us here at USC.

“But for Ezra, it’s not all about how high he jumps and how far he jumps, it’s about the person and what he brings to us and what we can bring for him and his development.”

By December, USC had offered Frech admission to the university with “the understanding that you will compete as a member of USC’s Men’s Track and Field team during at least your first year of enrollment at the university.” Ezra also received the inaugural Swim With Mike Foundation’s Amir Ekbatani Paralympic Scholarship, awarded to a Paralympian attending USC or UCLA.

“Ezra brings so much to the table with the team,” Petersmeyer said. “His energy, his drive, his resolve, his determination, his charisma. Everything is so important and salient to what we’re trying to do as a team. Having Ezra train with the upperclassmen who have titles and records already is so important to not only his success but the success of them too. He’s a valuable member of this team.”

ON MAY 11, 2005, Bahar Soomekh lay in the hospital bed at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, her newborn son wrapped in a blanket in her arms. She wasn’t aware of the pandemonium happening around her in the delivery room.

Soomekh heard her husband, Clayton, asking everyone to leave the room. “What’s going on?” Soomekh remembers asking. She saw her doctor pacing back and forth. “What’s happening?” Soomekh yelled.

More doctors piled into the delivery room and took the newborn out of his mother’s arms. Bahar and Clayton were told their son was born with congenital limb differences — a condition where the limbs do not fully develop or form while the baby is in the womb. Physically, the newborn didn’t have a left knee, left fibula or four fingers on his left hand. His left leg was curved up toward his waist, and his left arm and hand were curled toward his chest. Despite numerous tests and 3D ultrasounds during the pregnancy, doctors missed the signs of a congenital condition.

Less than 24 hours later, doctors told the new parents that their son’s leg would have to be amputated and discussed options for surgeries that would provide mobility on his left hand. Soomekh’s mind raced. How is he going to be at school? Is he going to have problems? Are kids going to make fun of him? Bully him? What is his life going to be like?

The new parents decided on a name for their newborn: Ezra. The biblical name meaning “help” or “helper” in Hebrew spoke to the parents.

At 2 years old, Frech underwent groundbreaking surgery to amputate his left leg and transplant his left big toe to his left hand. Frech’s surgeons, at Boston Children’s Hospital pioneered the procedure with the goal of improving hand function and allowing engagement in physical activities. While his parents made a point of never hiding his disabilities, as he grew older, Frech began to realize how his body was different from those of other people he saw.

When he was 4, the year he got his first prosthetic leg, Frech was staring at himself in the bathroom mirror at his home in Brentwood, tears streaming down his face. He called to his mother. “Who looks like this, Mom? Who? No one is like me,” Frech sobbed. “Why did God pick me to not have the leg? Why did God pick me not to have the fingers?”

This was the first time Soomekh had seen her son break down over his disabilities. “Look at me,” she told him. “Remember your name. Ezra, which means to help, which means to teach. Your purpose is to help and teach the world about the beauty of disability. God picked you because you’re going to change the world.”

“Everything we did for Ezra was to build him up,” Soomekh says. “I would tell him, ‘Ez, put your head up. Walk with your chest out. I want you to walk into every room, every park and look and stare down everybody in that room. You let them know you arrived.'”

A few years later, on the grassy field at Brentwood School, 6-year-old Frech cradled a football in his left arm and looked around to see who was open. He was playing flag football with his classmates, and he was the quarterback. With only a few yards between him and the end zone, Frech took off running.

As he picked up speed, he realized his prosthetic leg was starting to detach. Within a matter of seconds, Frech’s running blade flew off his body and landed in front of four kids from the opposing team. Everyone froze. Still clutching the football, he hopped into the end zone for a touchdown.

“Everywhere I went in public, people were staring and pointing fingers and whispering. I felt like a zoo animal,” Frech says. “I was battling my own insecurities, battling my own perception of myself. The way I got through that was genuinely realizing that there was nothing I could do. I might as well make the most out of my life.”

By his 10th birthday, sports had become a huge part of that life. “When I was playing a sport, I wasn’t thinking about the fact that I was the only person at my school with a disability,” he says. “I was just one of the athletes.”

Playing on a club basketball team, Frech practiced a few times a week with his teammates and coaches. But he would dedicate time in his backyard, before and after school, to honing his skills, dribbling the basketball between his right leg and left prosthetic, navigating his own mobility on the court.

At practice and on game days, Frech displayed unwavering confidence. But as his skills developed, so did the disparaging comments. One day during basketball practice, Frech heard his coach yelling, “Are you guys kidding me? You’re letting the kid with one leg score on you right now?”

“Underestimating me probably pisses me off the most,” Frech says. “I always had to go the extra length to prove my worth, because it was so unlikely that the kid with the disability was going to be a starter on the team.”

“I’M READY TO go,” Frech says, as he walks onto the field at Allyson Felix Stadium on USC’s campus.

It’s February, less than one month away from his collegiate debut, and Frech has arrived at the track almost an hour before his teammates. He starts his warmup routine. After a few minutes, he removes his walking prosthetic and wipes down the upper part of his left thigh. Sliding on a rubber covering, he pushes his running blade onto his left thigh. Frech jogs up and down the turf field.

He removes his running blade and replaces it with his jumping prosthetic. “I’m ready to go,” he says again.

With teammates Elias Gerald and Brady Palen and Coach Petersmeyer standing adjacent to the high jump, Frech walks to his starting mark. In his first attempt, he clears the bar at 1.90 meters. Bouncing off the bright red mat, Frech races back to the starting mark. “Let’s go again,” he says. Catapulting off his right leg, he rotates his body to face his chest toward the sky and positions his left prosthetic to swing over the bar. Creating a gap between his body and the bar, Frech clears it with room to raise the bar even more.

Running into a curve with his prosthetic, Frech has little room for error in the high jump. Without a foot or ankle on his left leg, he can’t strike the ground in an angled position. Instead, he must run on the outside of the prosthetic, which increases his chances of slipping or falling. While propelling himself over the bar, Frech doesn’t have any control over the lower part of his prosthetic leg.

“If I place the blade literally centimeters to the left, right front or back off in any direction, it will throw off the entire run and everything will be messed up,” Frech says. “I’ve gotten really good at learning how to place it over the last 19 years so I know how to put it in the right position. Once I’m in the air, the prosthetic leg doesn’t provide me with a ton of momentum the same way swinging an able-bodied leg would. The reason I miss bars is because the blade takes it off.”

Springing off the mat, Frech moves to the side to watch a replay video from his coach’s phone. Catching his breath, Frech watches closely as his teammates prepare for their jumps.

Having recently returned from winning the NCAA Division I men’s indoor national championship — the 32nd national championship for the Trojans men — Gerald and Palen are two of the best jumpers in the nation. Clearing above 2.0 meters on a regular basis, the two upperclassmen set the standard for USC’s team. As the two took turns clearing above 2 meters, Frech focused on their form and energy.

“Having these three guys train together is so important to success, and Ezra’s development is going to be enhanced by having Brady and Elias,” Petersmeyer says. “Realistically, this season, we want him to earn a spot on the Big Ten roster. I know that’s something he’s trying to attain. He needs to get faster and stronger, and that’ll happen.”

Retreating back to the men’s locker room, Frech grabs at his phone and starts scrolling on social media. He shakes his head in disbelief. “Can you believe this?” Frech says to Gerald and Palen, showing them his phone. After posting videos on social media of him clearing bars at practice from the past few weeks, in anticipation of his season opener, Frech received a flood of comments and messages: “Isn’t this cheating?” “How is this not an advantage?” “Bro has a built in spring!” “You’re cheating.”

“People don’t understand how a prosthetic works,” Frech says. “They don’t understand the disabled community. And they just say ignorant stuff that makes absolutely zero sense. But usually the good comments outweigh the bad.

“But ever since posting about USC, it’s definitely increased.”

A few hours later, Frech sits in his car and hits record on his phone. The next day, he uploads a reel on Instagram: “People say I have an advantage. Let’s talk about it.

“If having a prosthetic leg was cheating, then why is my world record in the long jump, 100-meter and high jump way less than an able-bodied athlete?”

In the weeks following, Frech competed for USC at four invitationals where he battled to find a place on the leaderboard. After claiming second in the high jump and seventh in the long jump at the first outdoor meet of the year, the Trojan Invitational, Frech traveled with the team to the LSU Battle of the Bayou, where he failed to clear a valid height and didn’t place on the leaderboard. Finishing 27th in the long jump at the 65th annual Mt. SAC Relays in April, Frech knew his first season was coming to a close. In his last meet with the team, at the USC vs. UCLA Invitational, Frech finished fifth in the high jump and seventh in the long jump.

“It’s disappointing to not perform my best,” Frech says. “I know what I’m capable of, and I know I have what it takes to get there. We knew that there was going to be a learning curve and that it would take some time.”

USC went on to win its 33rd men’s national championship in June.

“Ezra wasn’t one of the jumpers for us at the national championships, but he showed up and gave it his all,” Petersmeyer says. “He helped us win these titles. He’s a valuable member of the team.”

This summer, as Frech prepares for the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships in October, he’s not shy about his goals for his next season with the Trojans.

“I will make the Big 12 team. I will travel to more away meets. And I will continue to improve my skills and develop.

“It wasn’t expected that I would come out and win everything in college. This is new territory. But I’m here,” Frech says.

WHEN FRECH WAS 12, he sprinted to the middle of a grassy field, away from other competitors and parents. He pounded his hands against his head and started crying.

It was the 2013 Endeavor Games in Oklahoma, Frech’s first time participating in sporting events alongside other athletes with disabilities. The 8-year-old’s father, Clayton Frech, signed him up for everything, including every track and field event.

Frech attempted the long jump first. With his running blade securely attached, Frech took off down the runway. He sprang into the air and landed in the sand. “We had no idea what we were doing,” Clayton Frech says. “It was his first time long-jumping. He was just running and jumping.” But then, Frech jumped farther and farther, soon breaking the youth record in long jump.

Later in the day, in the high jump, Frech ran toward the mat and flung himself in the air. His prosthetic hit the bar. Some of the adult athletes in attendance started giving him pointers to control his prosthetic and carry himself high enough over the bar.

After multiple failed attempts, Frech scurried to the middle of the grassy field adjacent to the high jump event. “I was so upset about how I jumped,” Frech says. “This was my first time ever high-jumping. I don’t even know what I was comparing myself to, why I was so upset. I was so competitive. It’s not even competitive against other people but competitive against what I believe I’m capable of.”

Clayton Frech saw a need for more sporting events and clinics for children and adults with physical disabilities. Soon after that first Endeavor Games experience, he created Angel City Sports, a nonprofit dedicated to providing free access to adaptive sports opportunities for youth, veterans and other adults in Southern California. The organization hosts the Angel City Games each year in L.A., with sports clinics and competitions.

Five years later, in 2018, Frech walked onto the track at Harvard-Westlake school in Los Angeles. He watched as a young boy hurled himself over the high jump bar at the fifth annual Angel City Games. Nathan Kuhn, a 7-year-old born with congenital limb differences, was clearing bar after bar. “Is this his first time?” Frech asked the officials. “This is unbelievable.”

Kuhn, inspired by Frech’s social media posts as he trained for Tokyo, had asked his mother, Patty Kuhn, if he could attend the Angel City Games and try “Ezra’s events.”

“I just wanted to be like him,” says Kuhn, now 12. “I watched videos of him jumping over the bar, and I thought if he could do it, then maybe I could try it too. It was the first time I ever saw anyone that looked like me do something like that.”

Kuhn is in the stands at USC in March as Frech prepares to compete in the high jump competition of his first collegiate meet.

Frech swaps out his prosthetic for his high jump blade. There are only four competitors in the high jump event. Gerald, who holds the collegiate record for high jump at 2.30 meters, told Frech when he joined the team, “Welcome home. This is where you belong.” Gerald reminds him of that today. “You are USC track now. Show everyone why you’re here.” Frech takes his starting mark and clears his first attempt at 1.80 meters.

In his second attempt, Frech clears 1.85 meters. Pushing him to the top spot on the leaderboard. Frech clears his next attempt at 1.90 meters. For his fourth attempt, the bar is raised to 1.95 meters, just above his Paris Paralympic record of 1.94.

Looking at the crowd, Frech stars clapping his hands. “Let’s go!” he yells. The crowd chants, “Ezra, Ezra, Ezra.” Kuhn nudges his mom, smiling. “This is so cool.”

With a dash toward the mat, Frech leaps over the bar before snagging it with the crest of his body. The bar drops to the mat. “Ahhh,” the crowd sighs collectively. The scoreboard flickers to reveal Frech’s second-place finish, behind USC alumnus Earnest Sears III, who entered the competition as an unaffiliated competitor and finished with a 2.15-meter best. Frech ties with Long Beach State’s Cytres Vives, finishing ahead of Harvard’s Daire Mahon.

Hugging his coach, Frech pauses on the track before retreating to the stands to greet his family and friends. A small crowd grows around Frech, and he shakes hands and poses for more photographs. Clayton pulls out Ezra’s two gold medals.

“Nathan, want to put them on?” Frech says. “You’re going to get these one day.”

The 12-year-old hangs them around his neck.

“How does it feel?” Frech asks.

“It feels powerful,” Kuhn says.

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