Javier Sotomayor Sanabria

His extraordinary performance in the most important competitive venues in the world, his records and titles, establish him as the greatest high jumper of all time.

The man from Matanzas, nicknamed the "Prince of the Heights," holds two world records which have included him for posterity in the annals of athletics and the Guinness Book: a jump of 2.43 meters indoors and 2.45 outdoors. Although his records remain in effect, he declared to the newspaper Granma that he has lived convinced that at some point someone will surpass his mark, because "records are made to be broken."

In 1984 he set a national record with a jump of 2.33 meters. As a youth, in 1986 he reached the elite of the world with a youth world record of 2.36. In 1988 he sets a world record of 2.43 in Salamanca, Spain. The same mark, but indoors, he achieves at the Budapest World Championships in 1989, the year he also raised the outdoor mark to 2.44 in Puerto Rico. In 1993, once again in Salamanca, he added one centimeter more and brought the universal record to 2.45 meters.

He is married to María del Carmen García (Runner-up in high jump at the Pan American Games in Havana '91) and has three children. He has obtained numerous distinctions for his incomparable career, among which stands out the Prince of Asturias Award for Sport, which was granted to him in 1992 in recognition of his human and sporting values.

Born at 10 am on October 13, 1967 in Limonar, Matanzas. He began in athletics at a very young age. His uncle, without realizing it, inclined him toward the sport because he gave his parents a stopwatch and whenever Javier had to run an errand, he would count how long it took to go and return, always trying to beat his previous time.

In school he practiced many sports: high jump, long jump, 60 and 1000 meter races and baseball. His natural abilities for jumping events led him to choose the high jump, where he soon demonstrated the wisdom of his decision: at only 15 years old he managed to clear the bar over two meters. His aptitudes for this event allowed him to study at the Superior School of Athletic Development (ESPA) in Havana.

His rise was meteoric, to the point that he earned the nickname Prince of the Heights, but some call him King because no athlete has yet been able to match or surpass his marks. His first coach, José Godoy, and later Guillermo de la Torre, were responsible for this.

An injury at the beginning of the nineties forced him to temporarily abandon this sport. This allowed him to continue with his studies in Physical Culture. That year brought sad news for the Matanzas champion: the death of his friend and coach Godoy.

He likes music and says he has good judgment in selecting the appropriate music for the right moment, he adores the sea although he admits not being a good swimmer, he likes Creole food and is a lover of nature. He has three important women in his life: his grandmother, mother and wife, have been his constant motivation, supporting him in his sad hours and enjoying his triumphs even while being far away.

On March 4, 1978, when he was 10 years old, Carmelo Benítez, a talent scout from the base, came to his primary school "Antonio Maceo" to conduct selection tests, he was placed in front of the bar which he cleared cleanly and was selected. However, his aspiration was to be a runner like Alberto Juantorena, his idol, for his double feat at the Montreal '76 Olympic Games. But Carmelo convinced him to dedicate himself to high jump.

Later he was selected for the Sports Initiation School in Matanzas. There he had as his teacher José Anacleto Espinosa, who upon seeing him immediately knew that there was a champion inside him.

In 1982 he entered the Superior School of Athletic Development, where he met José Godoy Sánchez. Under his guidance he reached the youth team and there he surpassed the adults and was able to achieve the dream of all Cuban athletes: first to obtain the absolute national record in his specialty with 2.33 m and then to triumph in the international arena.

In 1984 "the coach" Godoy, as he affectionately called him, promoted him to the national pre-selection, another major leap in his life as he himself refers to it.

With 1.94 meters in height and 81 kilograms in weight, he made his debut at 13 years old and only reached 1.65 meters, but with ten centimeters less in height at that time. Little by little the boy developed his athletic abilities, because at 15 years old he cleared the bar set at two meters.

From that moment on, and under the guidance of the experienced coach José Godoy, the Cuban attracted the attention of rivals, specialists and fans, who saw him as a champion.

At 16 years old he had ceased to be an unknown jumper and entered the circle of the chosen ones. He surpassed with 2.23 meters the national youth record in Santiago de Cuba, then improved it in Havana on five occasions, until reaching 2.33 during the "Lázaro Peña" Memorial.

At 19 years old he broke the youth world record with 2.25 meters during the Universal Championship for the category in Athens 1986.

He did not participate in the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games; however, this situation did not prevent him from surpassing the world record that year with a jump of 2.43 meters in Salamanca.

In 1992, during the Barcelona Olympics, he won the gold medal with a mark of 2.34 meters, modest for his level, but unreachable for the rest of the competitors.

He was the master of the specialty, he had great confidence in himself, because in his performances, when rivals began to jump over 2.25 m, he did it over 2.28 and many times over 2.30.

After the death of his dear coach, Guillermo de la Torre becomes his coach, a great technician. The adaptation between both at first was not easy but in the end they got along and so much so that Soto himself expressed "And while it is true that Godoy took me to glory, Guillermo has managed to keep me there." After efforts and recoveries from injuries he resumes his rhythm and becomes the same as before and Guillermo is recognized as the triumphant coach who accompanies him at the Central American and Caribbean Sports Games in Mexico 1990 (gold), Pan American Games in Havana 1991 (gold), World Championship in Tokyo 1991 (silver), Indoor World Championship in Seville 1992 (gold), Barcelona Olympics '92 (gold), among many other events where he maintained his quality as a high jumper.

Results
Chronology of National Records
2.33 m Havana May 19, 1984
2.34 m Havana March 20, 1985
2.36 m Santiago de Cuba February 23, 1986
2.37 m Athens June 20, 1987
2.38 m Kvarnsveden June 19, 1988
2.40 m Salamanca September 8, 1988
2.43 m Salamanca September 8, 1988
2.44 m San Juan July 29, 1989
2.45 m Salamanca July 27, 1993

World Championships
Outdoor Events:
Gold Medal: Stuttgart 1993 (2.40 m)
Athens 1997 (2.37 m)
Silver Medal: Tokyo 1991 (2.36 m)
Gothenburg 1995 (2.37 m)

Indoor Events:
Gold Medal: Budapest 1989 (2.43 m)
Toronto 1993 (2.41 m)
Barcelona 1995 (2.38 m)
Maebashi 1999 (2.36 m)
Silver Medal: Paris 1985 (2.30 m)
Bronze Medal: Seville 1991 (2.31 m).

Olympic Games

Gold Medal: Barcelona 1992 (2.34 m)
Silver Medal: Sydney 2000 (2.29 m)

Pan American Games

Gold Medal: Indianapolis 1987 (2.32 m)
Havana 1991 (2.35 m)
Mar del Plata 1995 (2.40 m), this last jump a continental record

Central American and Caribbean Games

Gold Medal: Mexico 1990 (2.34 m)
Ponce 1993 (2.35 m)
Maracaibo 1998 (2.37 m), also an area mark on the last occasion.

Since American George Horine cleared the bar at exactly 2.00 meters at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, United States, on May 18, 1912, until Soviet Rudolf Povarnitsin became the first human to conquer the mythical 2.40 meter barrier in Donetsk, formerly the Soviet Union, on August 18, 1985, 73 years passed.

However, in the three subsequent seasons that barrier grew the same number of centimeters in the legs of three talented athletes: Russian Igor Paklin (2.41), Swede Patrick Sjoberg (2.42) and Javier Sotomayor, but the latter was the only one capable of surpassing it on repeated occasions.

World Records
2.43 m on September 8, 1988 in Salamanca (Spain) and 2.43 m on March 4, 1989 in Budapest, Hungary (current indoors).
2.44 m on July 25, 1989 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2.45 m on July 27, 1993 in Salamanca, Spain (current outdoors).

Soto has set new world records three times in high jump. Specialists agree in stating that his planetary records of 2.43 meters indoors and 2.45 outdoors of the King of the Heights will remain unmatched for several more years.

Of the best records in the history of High Jump, the majority belong to Sotomayor, all above 2.40 meters.

In the nineties three top figures in the history of athletics in Cuba appear: Ana Fidelia Quirot, known as The Storm of the Caribbean, Iván Pedroso and Javier Sotomayor.

Honors
He was selected on several occasions as the best athlete in Latin America, received the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports in 1993 and five times from the Prensa Latina news agency. He won all the awards given by the International Amateur Athletics Federation and was registered on October 20, 2008 in the Hall of Fame of Athletics of Central America and the Caribbean.

Unbeatable Records
Few are the track and field events whose outdoor and indoor world records are held by the same athlete, as is the case of Sotomayor, king of high jump. His unbeatable marks of 2.45 m outdoors and 2.43 m indoors establish him as the King of the Heights.

He has been the only jumper capable of clearing the bar over 2.43 m, precisely the mark with which he assumed universal leadership.

Besides Sotomayor and Sjoberg, only five other athletes have cleared the bar set at 2.40 m or more.

They were Kirghiz Igor Paklin (2.41 m in 1985), Ukrainian Rudolf Povarnitsyn (2.40 m in 1985), Romanian Sorin Matei (2.40 m in 1990), American Charles Austin (2.40 in 1991) and Russian Vyacheslav Voronin (2.40 m in 2000).

The first two, competing then for the Soviet Union, set the planetary record at that moment, which in Povarnitsyn's case broke the 2.39 m mark, set in 1984 by Chinese Zhu Jianhua.

American Conway also reached 2.39 m and had better performance indoors as did Germans Tranhardt and Mogenburg, but the rest of the top historical world rankings have remained at 2.38 m or less.

Even after the Athens 2004 Olympic Games only three athletes have conquered that height, seven centimeters away from Sotomayor's record: South African Jacques Freitag and Ukrainian Andrey Sokolovsky, both in 2005, as well as Russian Andrey Silnov on July 25, 2008.

Currently he serves as national commissioner of athletics for Cuba.