View from the Sofa: Can you jump better with a leg missing? At least we can face the question now

The Superhumans Show, Channel 4

We watch sport to witness something different, something most of us are unable to do. We sit down to watch Usain Bolt hurtle down a 100-metre track in nine and a bit seconds because it is impossible for us and the other seven billion humans on this planet. And we stayed up through the night last Thursday to watch the Eddie Aikau Memorial surfing competition – a contest that takes place only if the waves are over 30 feet high – because riding mountains of water like the ones at Hawaii’s Waimea Bay seems counter to the whole “keep living” part of our walnut brain that stops us from doing exciting stuff like leaping off tall buildings and drinking bleach.

It sometimes spills over into voyeurism – or morbid fascination, at least. Who hasn’t watched the Isle of Man TT with the prospect of a life-threatening crash in the back of their minds? And there is a reason why the YouTube video titled “Top 10 worst sports injuries and deaths” has almost four million views.

Not many may admit it, but for some there was an element of peering when it was announced that Channel 4 was going to give the 2012 Paralympics extensive coverage. But what began as fascination at watching a sprinter with a prosthesis or a javelin-thrower in a wheelchair turned into admiration at sportspeople performing at their best – driven to further heights by the amount of attention.

The channel has done incredible work in treating Paralympic sport in the same way as that performed by able-bodied competitors and it is to its credit that it appears to have listened to athletes like David Weir and is giving the Rio Games months of build-up, starting with The Superhumans Show on Saturday morning.

Weir had said in the London Evening Standard on Friday how “disheartening” it was that the feel-good factor of London 2012 had dissipated, so it was excellent timing that Superhumans, fronted by Alex Brooker, began its run the following day.

Brooker, who announced the gloriously arbitrary milestone of “only 193 days until the Paralympics in Rio”, admitted that he wasn’t a presenter, but he did a decent job of imitating one, aided by the former 400m runner Iwan Thomas, Breaking Bad actor RJ Mitte – both of whom will cover the Games in Rio – and Paralympic long jumper Stef Reid.

And although the atmosphere was light and fluffy, with the ubiquitous small yet rowdy studio audience, they refused to skirt around some serious talking points, like whether the German long jumper Marcus Rehm – who can leap almost eight and a half metres – has an advantage with a blade in place of a right leg.

“The fact we are even having this conversation – that having one less leg is a help – is incredible,” Brooker said, while Reid, who also competes with the aid of a prosthetic lower limb, added: “Does it help? Nobody knows yet. Let’s get the science done on it. Marcus wants this more than anyone.”

It was Mitte who nailed why the show will be worth watching over the coming weeks – and he also hit on why we watch any sport: “These athletes are no different from any other athlete; they are warriors, all of them.”