One footed german Markus Rehm jumps 8.40m - distance that would have won 2012 Olympic gold!!

This would be terrible news if allowed to compete.

All the scientific studies in the world cannot 100% claim that a prosthetic leg gives "absolutely no advantage over human leg".

Even if they are 1% out wrong on whether it helps a "whole" 8.40m jumper by 0%, that means making him an upto :

~ 8.48m

jumper when scientists said he should be no better than 8.40m.

8.48m instead of "scientists" "100% assured" no advantage could give him 8cm advantage off just trivial 1% error.

The LJ in Rio could be damn close with the 3 Americans & the limey with 8cm potentially covering all of them

( Albeit I reckon Dendy is a 8.70+ jumper based on fractional foul in qualifying which looked 8.70+ toe-sand

He is an incredible physical specimen & needs to take this ragtail event of past near decade back to "respectabilty"

Honourable mention to Henderson who actually looked to having a near winning jump in final but again, marginal foul !!!??? )

The 'bok should not be allowed in Rio LJ !

Dendy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdxHfNpXC2Y

Jumps off the Carbon leg, not surprisingly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WYsRO2VWgg

And Dendy tho...

That's 27ft 6.7in for those of us who don't want to do the conversion. 8.4 meters means nothing to me, but over 27 ft is easier to see, ha!! As a runner I have no problem with using metric for running events, but for throwing and jumping jumping events I like to see the conversion.

I wouldn't have an issue with him competing against able body athletes if he was jumping off his real leg instead of the spring loaded fake leg that he is jumping from.

inthepdx wrote:

I wouldn't have an issue with him competing against able body athletes if he was jumping off his real leg instead of the spring loaded fake leg that he is jumping from.

That was my first thought too.

Woo woo woo woo, are you implying that the work he is putting in is somehow any different than the athletes with two legs? How dare you try and categorize someone by their legs, he is a strong will athlete and should be able to compete with two legged jumpers if he wants. We should be applauding him for his heroics that show people they can do what they want no matter how they were born not trying to exclude him from athletic events.

I'm fine with him competing as long as he identifies as a guy without a spring leg.

Can he put a little jet in the back of that thing? He could probably go 50 or 60 ft if that is possible.

IAAF did their study and have found that spring legs and synthyroid offer no advantage. I trust their judgement more that some hater hiding behind his computer.

Congrats to Mr. Rehm, and no doubt he's an amazing athlete.

Still, if they allow blades in the able-bodied olympics, I hope some elite jumper switches to a blade and then we'll see if there's no advantage. Someone from the top 5-10 in the world would have an incentive.

Or someone close to the world record but no cigar, could try to go for the 9.00.

The Young's modulus (elasticity) of bone vs carbon fibre reinforced plastic is around 80 GPa vs 150 GPa+. These legs are not designed using like for like materials, they are designed to provide maximum spring, stiffness and therefore return of energy.

What is lacking are many scientific studies with lots of data points from actual athletes. Also whilst research on Pistorius concluded that he used oxygen similarly to able bodied athletes and therefore can compete in the Olympics, the extra spring from CFRP as compared to a human leg is undeniable (from an engineering standpoint).

This would clearly be an advantage in something like the long jump.

But I agree that this is simply speculation, nobody knows for certain the advantage (if any) until a study is carried out.

You all know what 100m is.

What's so hard about reporting jumps in metres?

After all you have to converted it to feet. Plus you must have been watching Olympics, WC's & diamond Leagues for decades. All measured in metres!

A spring cannot create energy, but rather can only store energy created by the runner. So, where is the unfair advantage?

It is the IMPERIAL SYSTEM, UKathletics coach! Why would you have any objection to it? 100m is easy to understand, about 110y. It is the length of a football field, plus endzone. Measurements in meters obviously vary for each jump and throw, so we don't have a ready intuitive comparison given our use of your system of measurement.

It's obvious that these athletes with carbon fiber limbs are aided--why does it just happen to be the case that they are able to achieve very close to the best of any able bodied athlete ever when there are so many of the latter and so few of the former--who obviously have to overcome their own disabilities as well?

It cannot, you are correct. However it can return more of that energy in a useful form, one that directs the athlete up and forwards, rather than just dissipating in the muscles, tendons and bones of the runners leg. It has a lot to do with material stiffness but also relates to the mass of the article.