Summer Next paralympic athlete controversy?

[Wallaby]

There's a bit of talk around about the next disabled athlete who may compete against the able-bodied guys. Markus Rehm of Germany recently long-jumped 8.40. To put that into perspective, the winner of the (able-bodied) world champs was Greg Rutherford, who did 8.41.

Here's a video of Rehm jumping 8.24 recently


You may notice something interesting here - he jumps off his prosthetic leg.I wonder how much advantage (if any) that gives him? (And as a jumps coach, his technique is superb).

For comparison, Rehm runs has a PB in the 100m of 11.69
Rutherford runs 10.38
Fabrice Lapierre (who came 2nd to Rutherford) runs 10.56
Mitchell Watt - 10.31
Jeff Henderson (leading american at the recent Worlds) - 10.18

He has applied to the IAAF to compete in sanctioned competitions (including the Olympics). I will be interested in the outcome.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

There has to be some mechanical advantage in using the artificial leg because it is "springier" than a normal leg. The question is, how much?

It would be interesting to see if you made him and other 8m long jumpers, jump off their non preferred leg to see how far they jump and the average difference using either leg. If that difference for Rehm is similar to Rutherford, Lapierre , Watt etc then you would think he isnt getting that much of an advantage.