Prosthetic jumper Markus Rehm is in excellent form and is aiming for the 6th gold medal in a row at the Para Athletics World Championships in Paris. Even the very long jump could succeed.
Even away from the “Stade Sébastien Charléty” in the south of Paris, Markus Rehm is currently making a relaxed and easy-going, but focused impression. “Tension and anticipation, both are there,” Rehm said WDR ahead of his first competition at the World Para Athletics Championships on Friday. He had already been a spectator at other long jump competitions in other classes, he said. “That’s really fun.”
His goal is clear: the sixth world championship gold medal in the long jump in a row. “That has to be the goal. Anything else would be a lie,” he said. And: “We would like to attack the championship record. It’s 8.40 meters.”
With a world record for the World Cup
The three-time Paralympic champion in long jumping knows what he wants – and what he can do. A good two weeks ago, the 34-year-old managed another very long jump: At the LAZ meeting in Rhede, the prosthetic jumper jumped a world record of 8.72 meters and improved his record, set just a few weeks earlier in Barcelona, by eight centimeters.
A jump that – once again – caused a stir: Because the man from Leverkusen jumped 30 centimeters further than the currently best jumper in the world without a disability, the Indian Jeswin Aldrin. And: 81 centimeters further than the year’s best German long jumper Felix Wolter (as of July 10, 2023). Rehm does not want to promise that the world record will be broken again at the World Championships: “There has to be a lot coming together. It’s going to be difficult distances.”
A German jumper has never jumped further than Rehm
The new record of 8.72 meters means a lot to Markus Rehm. Never before has a German long jumper – with or without a disability – jumped further. The longest jump by a German to date was achieved by Sebastian Bayer in 2009 at the European Indoor Championships in Turin with 8.71 meters. The outdoor record is held by Lutz Dombrowski, who won Olympic gold for the GDR in Moscow in 1980 with 8.54 meters.
“Of course that’s crazy,” said Rehm. “Of course, I also had the 8.71 meter mark in mind and I was a bit happy that it was 8.72 meters. It’s great, that’s an amazing distance that we’ve been working towards for a long time. “
Targeting Mike Powell’s world record of 8.95 meters
Rehm is now also thinking about the nine-meter mark, which has never been reached before. For a long time he didn’t think it was possible to jump that far, but that has changed in the meantime: The world record of the US American Mike Powell of 8.95 meters now seems to the orthopedic master in the realm of possibility. Not necessarily already in the competition on Friday, but in the coming months. The jumper, who is starting for TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, is only 23 centimeters away from the 32-year-old long jump world record.
“I’ll be honest. As a competitive athlete you always want more and at some point you start dreaming,” said Rehm. Rehm Powell has even set a record. With his 8.72 meters in Rhede, Rehm surpassed the previous stadium record in the Rheder Sports Center of 8.60 meters – set by Mike Powell in 1991, the year in which he also jumped 8.95 meters. “It was fun to take even a small stadium record from such a legend,” said Rehm with a grin. “Let’s see what’s going on now.”
“You have to aim higher to take the next step”
Trainer Steffi Nerius also thinks the distance is possible, maybe even in the competition on Friday – if all the conditions are perfect. “The Stade Charléty is a closed stadium, so far there has been little wind and hardly any tailwind. Let’s see how it is on Friday.”
Long jumper Markus Rehm (l) with Steffi Nerius (r) at the home game Para Athletics in Leverkusen.
The 2009 javelin world champion has been training Rehm since she retired in the same year and knows that the renewed world record is an additional motivational boost for her athlete. “It was already the goal to become the best German long jumper and to jump further than Sebastian Beyer.”
Nine meters mark in the realm of possibility
Nerius trusts her protégé to jump to the nine-meter mark. “The landing at 8.72 meters wasn’t ideal. You have to be mentally ready for a jump like that. Markus himself was surprised at how far he jumped and fell over in the air. Now he knows that his legs have to raise it even longer.” Rehm also sees it this way: “You have to be ready for the really big distances. And that should be the goal.”
New athletes in the Leverkusen training group challenged Rehm in winter training and gave him new impetus. Looking ahead to the Paralympics in Paris next year, Nerius still sees room for improvement. “We will work on the ability to sprint so that Markus can start up even faster.”
Successful cooperation for 14 years
How long the two will continue to form THE successful duo in German para-athletics is still in the stars. The former javelin thrower, who is head of the sports boarding school in Leverkusen, makes her future coaching career dependent on her athletes: “It’s clear to me that I’ll stop coaching when Markus ends his sports career. He’ll be 36 at the Paralympics next year. But Of course only he can decide when he breaks up.”
Rehm himself has tried his hand at snowboarding – and has shown considerable talent. But the 2026 Winter Games are still “far away,” he said with a laugh. “First of all, the Paralympics are coming up in Paris next year. That’s where the focus is.” But the topic of snowboarding is not completely out of the question: “We’ve already looked at where there might be opportunities to be there. It’s always good for me to do something different. But of course the training for the long jump shouldn’t suffer as a result The lightness of snowboarding is always good for me, but at this level the focus has to be on the long jump.”
