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A disaster for inclusion (nd current)

Not allowed to jump at the Olympics: athlete Markus Rehm.

Photo: Jens Büttner / dpa

“No Olympics for me!” Was the headline of Markus Rehm on Instagram. To do this, he put on a sad face in front of his TV at home, because he is only allowed to watch the Tokyo Olympics from there. The 32-year-old from Leverkusen would much rather participate as a long jumper himself, but the Cas International Sports Court denied him this path, as Rehm reported. In terms of inclusion, this is a disaster.

As a 14-year-old Rehm had lost his right lower leg in a wakeboard accident. But he never renounced the sport, became a long jumper with a prosthesis and has dominated the scene for a decade. Most recently he set a new world record with 8.62 meters. The three-time Paralympics winner and seven-time world champion himself held the old one.

The orthopedic technician’s success only half defines his success, because Rehm is also a pioneer for the inclusion of disabled people. That’s one of the reasons why he complained about his participation in the Olympics. The World Athletics Federation rejected this because the resilient prosthesis gave Rehm an advantage. However, this has never been proven, especially since Rehm starts up much more slowly with the prosthesis than non-disabled people. In a similar case, the Cas had ruled that the burden of proof for the benefit claim did not lie with the athlete, but with the association. It was therefore surprising that Rehm was denied the start of the Olympics. So far, the court has not given any reason.

Nobody knows whether Rehm would have won. That was never important to him either. He would also have started out of competition, because the exceptional athlete was first and foremost about showing on the largest of all sports stages what extraordinary achievements disabled athletes are capable of. However, some officials seem to be afraid of this.

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