When Markus Rehm is asked about the secret of his success, what comes to mind for the para long jumper is his positive attitude. “I need to be in a good mood when I go to the stadium,” he says. “I have to enjoy it, and that’s how it always works best for me.” Rehm also has a special music list with three songs for this. He doesn’t reveal what motivates the man from Leverkusen to achieve top performance, but the strategy seems to be working: With four gold medals at the Paralympics, seven world and six European championship titles, Markus Rehm is one of Germany’s most successful para athletes.
Despite such dominance on the tartan track, Rehm has by no means achieved all of his goals. Because at the Para World Championships in Paris this Friday, it’s not just about defending the title for him. Rehm wants to cross what he says is an almost mystical limit – the nine-meter mark.
“Bring people to the stadium”
The two-time Para Athlete of the Year also sees his performance as a brand ambassador for the Paralympic movement: “I want to do a great air show to bring people to the stadium and say: come to our competitions, you won’t regret it, because you’ll see something great, great people, great performance, great jumps,” says Rehm, who holds the world record among para-athletes at 8.72 meters. So 28 centimeters are still needed for the dream that even Mike Powell could not achieve. In 1991 he jumped the record of 8.95 meters without any hindrance.
The comparison to the legendary American is no coincidence. Because in search of new challenges, Rehm, whose right leg was amputated below the knee after an accident in his childhood, tried to compete side by side with unharmed athletes at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. However, this ambitious project failed, which was neither due to a lack of positive attitude nor physical abilities.
“I don’t think the accusation is right”
At the time, the World Athletics Federation declared the para-athletes not eligible to compete because the prosthesis was an illegal mechanical aid. This gives Rehm an advantage. An argument that the athlete cannot understand: “It was never my goal to take something away from the other athletes,” he says. “I don’t think the accusation is right, because what options do I have? I can only wear my prosthesis, otherwise I only have one ankle bone.”
Rehm appealed to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport – unsuccessfully. “I’ll be honest, the story took a toll on me emotionally at the time,” he says today. “It was really very difficult. It has always been my aspiration to be the best I can be, to measure myself against the best.” And yet Rehm didn’t let the setback get him down and won gold at the Paralympics in Tokyo – by a clear margin.
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Rehm is now getting a foretaste of what the next summer games in Paris could have in store for the 34-year-old at the Para World Cup. Here he finds plenty of reason for a positive attitude even before his appearance. On Monday, below-knee amputee long jumper Josef Schäfer, who competes in a different starting class than Rehm, won gold after two failed attempts and also improved his own world record. “Insane, really well done,” says Rehm. “It was just a little too much for my nerves. I hope it will work for me with less drama.”