“Dancing with the Stars”’ Ezra Frech Can’t Be Stopped: How the Paralympian Is Inspiring Millions (Exclusive)

Yamillah HurtadoTue, October 13, 2026 at 6:48 PM UTC

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Ezra Frech and Danielle Karagach on ‘Dancing with the Stars’Credit: Dancing With The Stars/Instagram -

Ezra Frech opens up in this week’s issue about growing up with congenital limb differences and becoming a two-time Paralympic gold medalist

The Paralympian has dedicated much of his life to advocating for the disabled community and co-founded Angel City Sports alongside his father

Now, Frech is taking on Dancing with the Stars alongside pro partner Daniella Karagach

Growing up with congenital limb differences was “not easy,” says Paralympian Ezra Frech. “Everywhere you go in public, people are staring and pointing fingers and whispering. I felt like a zoo animal for many of those early years.”

Today, the 21-year-old is captivating audiences by competing on season 35 of Dancing with the Stars. “I know that little kid would be tripping out if he saw what we were doing right now,” the two-time gold medalist in track and field says via Zoom during a rare break from rehearsals.

Frech, who has consistently landed at the top of the show’s leaderboard with pro Daniella Karagach, 33, is the fourth-ever amputee cast on DWTS (there was Heather Mills in 2007, Amy Purdy in 2014 and Noah Galloway in 2015) and the first to compete with a mechanical knee.

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.

Ezra Frech and Danielle Karagach on ‘Dancing with the Stars’Credit: Disney/Eric McCandless

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Perfecting each dance move while determining whether to use his walking or running blade prosthetic “takes a lot of trial and error,” he says.

When Frech was younger, DWTS was “the only place in the mainstream media I really saw disability representation,” he notes. Now, he “dreams of continuing that legacy and being that person for the next generation.”

He adds, “If you have a disability, you should be able to turn on the TV screen and see people like you.”

The oldest of three boys born in Los Angeles to Bahar Soomekh, a former actress, and businessman Clayton, Frech says he managed the “darker moments” of feeling ostracized thanks to his family’s support and playing sports.

“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 says.

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Elijah, Clayton, Bahar, Gabriel and Ezra Frech in 2015Credit: Courtesy Ezra Frech

At age 9, he was named a finalist for Sports Illustrated Kids’ SportsKid of the Year and appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. But he says everything changed in 2016 when he had an “out of body experience” watching track and field at the Rio Paralympics on TV. “It was like the switch flipped,” he says.

In that moment, Frech set out to compete in the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics and placed fifth in the high jump and eighth in the long jump. Despite not making the podium, “nothing could have dimmed that moment for me,” he says.

Three years later, in Paris, he won the 100-meter dash and the high jump. “There’s nothing like your first gold,” he says. “There’s something magical about winning something like that for the first time, and when you put so much into it, it’s very special.”

Ezra Frech at the Paris 2024 Paralympic GamesCredit: DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty

Today, he paused his studies at the University of Southern California to train for the LA28 Paralympic Games. But whether he scores another gold — or the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy on DWTS — Frech says his greatest achievement will always be creating the nonprofit Angel City Sports with his father in 2013.

The organization makes adaptive sports accessible to those with disabilities in Southern California. “The power of sport, what it does for you physically, psychologically, what it does for the soul, those same effects are tenfold in someone with a physical disability,” he says.

One day he hopes to expand the work globally while continuing his mission of normalizing those with disabilities, which, he believes, is “what I was put on this earth to do.”

For now, he’s lasered focus on his task at hand — nailing his routine for the Oct. 13 episode of DWTS. “I never would have thought I’d fall so in love with dance, but I’m enjoying every second.”

He’s also taking away more than just new moves, but new friends. “We’re always having the best time together,” he says of Karagach. “I know I’m going to be friends with [her] for the rest of my life.”

Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”