Paralympian Ezra Frech scored in the DMs when he received a special message from NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal . Before winning gold in the 100m sprint and men’s high jump in Paris earlier this month, Frech, 19, said he completely freaked out when he received a video from one of his favorite athletes of all time. “I made a video when I was in the Paralympic Village where I talked about wearing a Shaquille O’Neal jersey around, and my teammates were telling me, ‘You can’t wear a Shaq jersey.
You have to wear Team USA,’” Frech exclusively shared with Us Weekly while partnering with Procter & Gamble. “I said, ‘Is that not USA enough? A Lakers jersey with Shaquille O’Neal? That’s USA enough.’ I posted this video.
Shaq DMs me and says, ‘Love you brother, go out there. Win gold.’” While Frech hasn’t posted the video on his own Instagram yet, he believes the motivational message helped him reach his Paralympic dreams.
“Shaq did send me a video wishing me good luck, telling me to go win the gold,” he said. “Maybe I felt so motivated by it, I had to do it twice. Shaq’s the man.
For him to say something like that was really cool. I was freaking out in my room. We were all freaking out.
” Earlier this month, Frech — who was born with congenital limb differences, leading to the amputation of his left leg at the age of 3 — defied expectations when he helped Team USA pick up two additional gold medals. While he’s since left Paris to start coll.