30 years later Javier Sotomayor is still the king of the high jump

July 26, 2023

Sotomayor says that records are made to be broken, but he is happy to continue being the world record holder in high jump.

On July 27, 1993, Cuban Javier Sotomayor set a world record in high jump that was fixed at 2.45 meters, and which no other athlete has achieved since then.

"Records are made to be broken," admitted the former Cuban athlete in a recent interview with Reuters regarding the celebration of 30 years since his sporting achievement, accomplished in Salamanca, Spain.

However, Sotomayor cannot help but feel happy to retain, so many years later, the crown as king of the high jump.

Although his record has not been broken since Salamanca, it has not been for lack of rivals hoping to snatch the crown from him. Such is the case of Qatari Mutaz Essa Barshim, with a jump of 2.43 m; and Ukrainian Bogdan Bondarenko, who jumped 2.42 m, both in 2014, almost a decade ago.

Sotomayor believes that in his era there was strong competition among rivals, more than now, which forced them to try to surpass themselves each time.

"There was very strong competition among us at each stage. They were responsible for my 2.45 meter jump," he said to the aforementioned agency in reference to Swedish Patrik Sjoberg, who before him established the world record at 2.42 m; as well as Kazakh Igor Paklin and American Charles Austin, with personal marks of 2.41 m and 2.40 m, respectively.

"Today with 2.33 or 2.34 meters you are a gold medalist and medalist in any competition, whether at the world or Olympic level," commented the former athlete.

"I feel very happy and proud to still have the glory of being the world record holder after so many years. I will live with that pride, and it will continue even after someone surpasses me," he concluded.

Sotomayor, who at age 14 jumped 2.00 meters for the first time, said during his visit to the Spanish late night show La Resistencia in 2021, that his most difficult experience in athletics was not when jumping 2.45 meters, but at age 16, when he broke the record in the youth category with a jump of 2.33 m.

Sotomayor first reached the pinnacle of high jump at the world level in 1988, before surpassing it with a jump of 2.44 m in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the following year.

Sotomayor currently works as secretary of Cuba's athletics federation, in addition to also coaching his son Jaxier, who last year became champion of Spain in the under-16 category in that discipline, after breaking his personal record and achieving a mark of 1.91 meters.

Javier Sotomayor, who also organizes an annual high jump event for children in honor of his late coach, José Godoy, also works as a businessman.

In October 2021 he opened a bar of his own in the Playa municipality in Havana, called "2.45" in reference to the high jump mark with which he set the world record.