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Javier Sotomayor returned from the injury which contributed to his
disappointing failure at the 1996 Olympic Games to again dominate the
high jump in 1997. He produced his best effort at the World
Championships in Athens on 6 August, where he set the year's best mark
of 2.37m to win the gold medal. Having wrapped up the competition,
Javier took one half-hearted attempt at 2.41m (see photo above)
before calling it a day. By 1998, the 30 year-old Sotomayor was not
reaching the heights he had in his earlier years, but the overall
performances in the event had also declined, and he was still able to
achieve the number one ranking. He recorded a victory that year at the
Goodwill Games on 22 July, and then on 20 August, at Maracaibo, he won
his third straight title at the Central American and Caribbean Games
with the year's best jump of 2.37m.
He continued this form in the 1999
indoor season, when he won the world indoor title at Maebashi on 7
March. Sotomayor achieved the best height in the Pan-American Games at
Winnipeg in July, but was later disqualified due to failing a drug test
for cocaine. He was exonerated by the Cuban Federation which denied the
charges, but the IAAF did not allow him to compete again until August
2000. Despite his absence from competition, Sotomayor won the silver
medal at the Olympic Games in Sydney on 2 September, with his year's
best performance of 2.32m. In March 2001, he competed in his eighth (a
record) World Indoor Championships, where he finished in equal fifth
place. He was unlucky to miss a medal at the World Championships in
Edmonton on 8 August, when he cleared the same best height (2.33m) of
the second and third placegetters, but finished in fourth place due to a
failure at an earlier height. (Ron Casey)
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ANNUAL PROGRESS:
2001 2.30 Réthimno 01 JUL
2000 2.32 Sydney 24 SEP
1999 2.34 Saint-Denis 03 JUL
1998 2.37 Maracaibo 20 AUG
1997 2.37 Athína 06 AUG
1996 2.33 Atlanta, GA 18 MAY
1995 2.40 Mar del Plata 25 MAR
1994 2.42 Sevilla 05 JUN
1993 2.45 Salamanca 27 JUL (World record) (8 feet and one-half inch)
1992 2.36 Zürich 19 AUG
1992 2.36 Eberstadt 04 JUL
1991 2.40 Paris Saint-Denis 19 JUL
1990 2.36 Jerez 03 SEP
1989 2.44 San Juan, PUR 29 JUL
(World record)
1988 2.43 Salamanca 08 SEP
(World record)
1987 2.37 Athína 20 JUN
1986 2.36 Santiago de Cuba 23 FEB
1985 2.34 La Habana 20 MAR
1984 2.33 La Habana 19 MAY
1983 2.17 :