Competitor for  Cuba Men's athletics Olympic Games Gold 1992 Barcelona High jump Silver 2000 Sydney High jump World Championships Gold 1993 Stuttgart High jump Gold 1997 Athens High jump Silver 1991 Tokyo High jump Silver 1995 Gothenburg High jump Pan American Games Gold 1987 Indianapolis High jump Gold 1991 Havana High jump Gold 1995 Mar del Plata High jump World Indoor Championships Silver 1985 Paris High jump Gold 1989 Budapest High jump Gold 1993 Toronto High jump Gold 1995 Barcelona High jump Gold 1999 Maebashi High jump Universiade Gold 1989 Duisburg High jump Central American and Caribbean Championships Gold 1985 Nassau High jump Gold 1989 San Juan High jump Bronze 1983 Havana High jump Javier Sotomayor Sanabria (born 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, pre-empting a lifetime ban for his second positive doping test (first for cocaine, then for anabolic steroids)..