Javier Sotomayor celebrated double anniversary

October 15, 2021

The legendary Cuban high jumper, Javier Sotomayor, celebrates two important dates this month: his birthday, on October 13th and the 19th, the moment of his induction into the Central American Athletics Hall of Fame.

Known in the sports world as the Prince of the Heights, Sotomayor officially began practicing athletics in his native Limonar, in the western Cuban province of Matanzas, and from the age of 14 he was already surpassing the two-meter mark in that event.

The tall jumper is a result of the high-performance pyramid in the country with participation in the Sports Initiation Schools in Matanzas and the Athletic Improvement School in Havana, before joining the national team.

Under the guidance of coach José Godoy, Sotomayor stood out on the international level and at just 16 years old he set a world youth record, still standing at 2.33 meters.

By 1987, he achieved a great result by winning the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Indianapolis, United States by clearing the bar set at a height of 2.32 meters.

In peak form he arrived at 1988, where the city of Salamanca in Spain hosted him during an outdoor event and he achieved his first world record of 2.43 meters.

Twelve months later he surpassed the record on two occasions during the Central American Athletics Championship in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he reached 2.44 meters in the outdoor event and the other at the World Indoor Championship in Budapest, Hungary with a jump of 2.43 meters.

The Barcelona edition in 1992 would immortalize him in the Olympus of champions and the title under the five rings constitutes the best tribute to his coach José Godoy, who passed away two years before.

He returns to the Spanish city of Salamanca in 1993 and amazes everyone present by setting the mark of 2.45 meters; this record along with the Olympic title earned him the distinction of Prince of the Heights of Sports.

But not everything was significant triumphs for Sotomayor because after his participation in the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, he was accused of doping and was suspended for two years from all types of competitions by the former International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

Immediately, Sotomayor denounced these inappropriate charges and considered it an unjustified and flagrant decision against him; in his favor he had the conduct of hundreds of medical tests, all negative, and also more than 300 jumps executed above 2.30 meters.

Upon learning of the reduction of the sanction to which Sotomayor was subjected in 2001, it enabled him to participate in the summer games of Sydney-2000, where he reached the silver medal with a record of 2.38 meters.

By 2008, the directors of the North, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association, Nacac, decided by majority vote to include Sotomayor in the hall of fame of the region along with Luis Mariano Delis, Roberto Hernández, Andrés Simón, Martiza Martén, Silvia Costa, Norberto Téllez and the late Cuban athletics historian Basilio Fuentes, as well as leader Jesús Arguelles.