So far ahead of the competition is Markus Rehm, we’ll be checking that the Earth is still on its axis if he fails to win the T44 long jump tomorrow at the World Para Athletics Championships in London. The 8.40m monster leap that took the German to gold at the 2015 world championships and delivered a new world record was 114cm beyond second-placed Ronald Hertog. The following year in Rio, the gap between the men had shrunk by 22cm but still it was a chasm.
Hertog may have consoled himself with the knowledge that Rehm’s Qatari effort was 9cm further than Greg Rutherford jumped to secure the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games and would have been enough to see him top the podium in Athens and Beijing as well.
When the 28-year-old, known as the “blade jumper” because of his prosthetic right leg, began talking about competing in the Olympics and World Championship with non-disabled athletes, nobody should have been surprised. But what seems a natural next step to Rehm was always going to be a leap for athletics, even if he has been part of the able-bodied German championships since 2014.
Despite knocking with the same polite insistence he used for his own nationals, Rehm has no reason to believe the door will open soon. This despite proposing to the IAAF that he enter their events on the same basis as he does in Germany, where even if he comes first — and twice he’s done just that — he doesn’t take a medal, believing the halo effect on disability sport to be reward in itself. His sense is that able-bodied rivals are broadly supportive of his ambitions, but Rehm has had little or no encouragement from officialdom.
“I sent some emails to [IAAF president] Sebastian Coe and then we waited a really long time for a reply. I had to remind them and finally something came back. They are busy with the world championships, but I’m still trying to talk to them to find a solution.
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“For me, it’s never been about winning medals. I have my competitions, my Paralympic competitions, to win my medals. I see it as an advert, something additional, something interesting for crowds which aren’t as into Paralympic sports.
“Even if we can’t say 100% that it’s the same style of jumping [with or without a prosthesis], there can still be a solution to compete together, with me not winning any medals.”
Rehm initially had his sights set on the Rio Olympics, and arranged for universities in his homeland, Japan and America to conduct a joint investigation into how blades affect long-jump performance.
Examining three jumpers with a prosthesis and three without, researchers determined that benefits amputees accrue in the long jump from their artificial leg being longer are negated in the run-up. The study was not enough to convince the IAAF that wearing a prosthesis brings no advantage, and while Rehm held constructive talks with a working group last year, he is yet to personally address anyone with clout.
“Hopefully they will agree to meet me and maybe that way they will understand me and what my targets are. I don’t want to be too rough. My goal is to bring Olympic and Paralympic athletes closer together, and the courts are not the way I would choose.
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“There’s a limit, of course, and I think my limit is quite high. So far I’ve been really fair, and tried to treat everyone in the right way. I’ve always said at the nationals, ‘I don’t want to go on the podium, please let the national champion be there even if I jump further.’ I don’t want to have any advantage. I just want to train really hard, and replace what I’ve lost [with the prosthesis].”
Although the IAAF could never say it, the difference between this case and that of Oscar Pistorius, who was cleared to compete in the 2012 Olympic Games, lies in Rehm’s athletic potential. Willing as he is to forego medals, there are practical and competitive challenges in a scenario where the winner doesn’t win.
“That’s what they’re scared of, probably,” says Rehm, whose amputation followed a wakeboarding accident. “It was like that at my first German nationals, when they thought I’d be fifth or sixth and then they were all shocked.”
All he can do is keep asking the question, and another big statement tomorrow wouldn’t hurt. Hertog will doubtless be delighted to hear that Rehm’s season has been gathering pace, leading to a jump of 8.19m at the German championships last week. London was where he won his first Paralympic gold, and he can’t get enough of the atmosphere.
“Every time I walk in, all the old emotions come back. It’s so different to Doha, where the conditions were good but almost no people were there. The crowd here love Paralympic sport and it’s always a good feeling to look into happy faces.” Rehm will do his thing and do it well, while looking to the next horizon. As he notes with an eager smile, next year’s European athletics championships take place in Berlin.