Javier Sotomayor

Javier Sotomayor

Javier Sotomayor Sanabria (born October 13, 1967) is a Cuban former track and field athlete, who specialized in the high jump and is the current world record holder. The 1992 Olympic champion, he was the dominant high jumper of the 1990s; he is the only person ever to have cleared 8 feet (2.44 meters). He is widely regarded as the best high jumper of all time. Cuban boycotts of the Olympics in 1984 and 1988 and an injury in 1996 cost him chances at additional Olympic medals, but he returned to win the silver medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Sotomayor retired in 2001.