Javier Sotomayor Sanabria (Spanish pronunciation: [xaˈβjeɾ sotomaˈʝoɾ]; born 13 October 1967) is a Cuban former track and field athlete who specialized in the high jump and is the current world record holder. His world record of 2.45 m (8 ft 1⁄4 in) and second-highest jump of 2.44 make him the only person ever to have cleared eight feet (2.44 m).
Sotomayor is a two-time gold medalist at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, and also won two silver medals at the competition. At the IAAF World Indoor Championships he won four gold medals between 1989 and 1999. In addition, he won three straight titles at the Pan American Games from 1987 to 1995, he was stripped for a fourth title in 1999 after testing positive for cocaine. At the Olympics, Cuban boycotts in 1984 and 1988 prevented him from competing, but he won gold in 1992, sat out in 1996 due to injury, and won silver in 2000. He retired in 2001 after testing positive for nandrolone, having avoided a lifetime ban that would normally follow a second positive drug test.
Sotomayor was born in Limonar, Matanzas Province on 13 October 1967. The son of a day-care worker and a sugar factory maintenance man, Sotomayor was first sent to a Cuban sports school as a prospective basketball player because of his height. At age 14, coaches made him a high jumper and by 19, he was ranked No. 5 in the world.
Sotomayor is engaged to Amaya González and has four sons. One of his sons, Javier Sotomayor García, has also competed in the high jump.
Sotomayor was only 14 when he first cleared 2 metres and by the end of 1983 he had a best of 2.15 m (7 ft 1⁄2 in). He then set the junior world record on 19 May 1984 by clearing 2.33 m (7 ft 7+1⁄2 in) at a meet held in Havana. He was not able to go to Los Angeles for the 1984 Olympics due to the boycott by Cuba (and most communist nations). In 1985 he took silver in the World Indoor Championships in Paris, with a best jump of 2.30 m (7 ft 6+1⁄2 in) on 19 January, and then improved his personal best two months later outdoors in Havana, with a jump of 2.34 m (7 ft 8 in) on 20 March 1985. He continued to improve the following year with a best jump of 2.36 m (7 ft 8+3⁄4 in) at a meet in Santiago de Cuba on 23 February 1986. He won his first international title in 1987, at the Pan American Games, and established a new personal best of 2.37 m (7 ft 9+1⁄4 in) at a meet in Athens, Greece on 20 June 1987.
On 8 September 1988, at a meet held in Salamanca, Spain – just four days before the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Summer Olympics – he set a world record of 2.43 m (7 ft 11+1⁄2 in). However, Sotomayor was again denied the chance to compete in the Olympics in Seoul due to another Cuban boycott of the Olympics. Sotomayor's leap of 2.43 m (7 ft 11+1⁄2 in) broke, by one centimeter, the record of 2.42 m (7 ft 11+1⁄4 in) set the previous summer (30 June 1987) by Sweden's Patrik Sjöberg in Stockholm.
Raises record in 1989 and again in 1993
Sotomayor twice increased the world record, to 2.44 m (8 ft 0 in) on 29 July 1989, in the Central American and Caribbean Championships, held in San Juan, Puerto Rico and to the current record of 2.45 m (8 ft 1⁄4 in) in Salamanca, Spain on 27 July 1993. The July 1989 record of 2.44 m, which he cleared on his second attempt, was a historic jump for Imperial-measure fans, as that was the first jump over 8 feet.
After setting the record at 2.44 m (8 ft 0 in) in July 1989, Sotomayor became inconsistent the following year. He missed much of the 1990 outdoor season after surgery to remove scar tissue in his knee and heel. Competing before an adoring Cuban public at the Pan American Games in Havana on Saturday 10 August 1991, Sotomayor defeated his principal rival, American Hollis Conway, with a jump of 2.35 m (7 ft 8+1⁄2 in). He then thrilled the crowd by having the bar raised 10 cm to a new world record of 2.45 m (8 ft 1⁄4 in), but in each of his three attempts he jumped into the bar, striking it with his shoulders on the way up each time. Afterwards he said, "My physical condition is better, but psychologically I am not well prepared."
The 1993 record set at the Salamanca Invitational track meet was remarkable in that Sotomayor required only four jumps: he took his first jump at 2.32 m (7 ft 7+1⁄4 in), passed at 2.35 m (7 ft 8+1⁄2 in), cleared 2.38 m (7 ft 9+1⁄2 in) on his first attempt, then had the bar raised to a record height of 2.45 m (8 ft 1⁄4 in), which he missed on his first attempt and then succeeded on his second attempt, lightly brushing the bar. Videos of his record-setting leap show his unique, galloping approach with two elongated strides in the middle of his 14-step run, and a powerful left leg take-off as he pumps both of his arms: he begins his approach with three short steps, builds up speed, then takes exaggerated strides on steps 8 and 9, and then re-accelerates over his last five strides.
After setting the record in Salamanca, Sotomayor told reporters, "I wanted to set the record here because it is a small city in which I feel like I am in Cuba. The people recognize me in the street and ask how I'm doing, the children surround me and I find myself in a good mental state."
Sotomayor set the current world indoor record of 2.43 m (7 ft 11+1⁄2 in) in Budapest on 4 March 1989.
He broke the record during the 1989 IAAF World Indoor Championships, clearing 2.43 m (7 ft 11+1⁄2 in) on his first attempt (and fifth jump overall). At this competition, Sotomayor was one of four men to clear 2.35 m (7 ft 8+1⁄2 in), at which point he stood in third place, trailing Dietmar Mögenburg (Germany) and Dalton Grant (Great Britain) who each succeeded on their first attempts, while Sotomayor and Patrik Sjöberg (Sweden) each needed two tries. In Budapest, he took his first jump of the competition at 2.31 m (7 ft 6+3⁄4 in), passed at 2.33 m (7 ft 7+1⁄2 in), missed his initial try at 2.35 m (7 ft 8+1⁄2 in) then cleared on his second attempt; made a huge first attempt clearance at 2.37 m (7 ft 9+1⁄4 in); passed at 2.39 m (7 ft 10 in); then had the bar raised for a record attempt at 2.43 m (7 ft 11+1⁄2 in), clearing on his first try, just brushing the bar with the back of his thighs on the way down. Germany's Carlo Thränhardt, who had set the indoor record of 2.42 m (7 ft 11+1⁄4 in) one year earlier (26 February 1988) in Berlin, finished fifth at Budapest with a jump of 2.33 m (7 ft 7+1⁄2 in).
When he was finally able to compete in the Summer Olympics, in 1992, he won the gold medal, and later the silver medal at the 2000 Olympics (after the reversal of a drug suspension for drug usage). Between the Olympic games he won the 1993 and 1997 World Championships.
At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Sotomayor won the high jump on the basis of his ability to jump "clean" (no misses) at the highest height. Five men cleared the winning height of 2.34 m (7 ft 8 in), but Sotomayor was the only one to clear the bar on his first attempt. All five competitors then failed at the next height, 2.37 m (7 ft 9+1⁄4 in). Jumping last in the round, Sotomayor failed on his first two attempts at 2.37 m (7 ft 9+1⁄4 in). When everyone else missed on their third attempts, Sotomayor was assured of the gold medal and therefore passed up his third attempt, opting for one try at a record height of 2.39 m (7 ft 10 in), which he missed. Sotomayor was declared the victor on the basis of the tie-breaker: Patrik Sjöberg (Sweden) won the silver medal having cleared 2.34 on his second attempt, while Artur Partyka (Poland), Tim Forsyth (Australia) and Hollis Conway (USA) tied for the bronze medal.
Indoor and outdoor world champion in 1993
Less than one month after setting the world record of 2.45 m (8 ft 1⁄4 in) at Salamanca (on 27 July), Sotomayor won the 1993 World Championships held at Stuttgart, Germany on 22 August. He outjumped the competition, establishing a new World Championships record of 2.40 m (7 ft 10+1⁄4 in): the second-place jumper, Artur Partyka (Poland) jumped 2.37.
The last time he would clear 2.40 m (7 ft 10+1⁄4 in) was on 25 March 1995 at the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina. A healthy Sotomayor attempted to defend his title at the 1995 World Championships, held in Gothenburg, Sweden. He cleared the winning height of 2.37 m (7 ft 9+1⁄4 in) on 8 August, but finished second to Troy Kemp (Bahamas) on the basis of missed jumps. Partyka finished third, at 2.35.