Highest Jump Ever: Javier Sotomayor

On July twenty ninth, nineteen eighty nine, at the Central American and Caribbean Championships held in in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Javier Soto Mayor did something no human had ever done in recorded history when he jumped eight feet on the high jump, which is a feat that has never been done again in recorded history. Here's the story behind Javier and how he achieved this epic moment today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. And today's trivia question to listen out for is why did Javier not compete in the Olympics till nineteen ninety two. Now, the high jump is a very unique competition as over the years there's been so many different techniques on what's the best way to do a high jump? Do you go over with one leg at a time? Do you just jump and topple over head first? And it wasn't until nineteen sixty eight when we first started to jump what we see today as the Fosburry's flop, where Dick Fosburry of Oregon jumped going over his back and has proved to be the best way for us to show how high we can actually jump, which the story behind that deserves its own full episode, but today we're going to focus on the greatest high jumper to ever live in Javier Soto Mayor as Xavier was born in Cuba to a relatively poor area, as his father worked in as a sugar factory maintenance man and his mother was a daycare worker. But Javier showed him to have great athletic ability and was actually spotted playing basketball when he was fourteen by some track coaches when he jumped for the ball and hit his head on the rim, and the coaches convinced him to try to compete in high jump, as it didn't require the skill that basketball did with your hands. You just needed to use that god given skill of jumping that he already had, and at that point he already had a vertical of forty three inches without any formal training, and in nineteen eighty three, his first year even trying to high jump, he had already cleared two meters which is over six and a half feet, and his best jump that first year was two point one five meters which is over seven feet. And on May nineteenth, nineteen eighty four, he set the junior world record at two point three three meters, which is seven feet seven and a half inches, which is a junior record that is still active to this day and would have been good enough to make the podium at the nineteen eighty four Olympics, although he was not able to compete as Cuba was boycotting the nineteen eighty four Olympics, do it being held in Los Angeles as retaliation for the United States in other countries boycotting the Olympics in nineteen eighty that were held in Moscow. But that didn't stop him from competing and he continued to improve his personal best and on September eighth, nineteen eighty eight, and a meet held in Spain, just four days before the opening ceremony of the tooth of the nineteen eighty eight Olympic Games, he set a world record jumping two point four to three meters, which is seven feet eleven and a half inches, and despite being the best jumper in the world at the time. Again, Cuba boycotted the Soul Olympics, so he was not able to compete, so two times he was denied the chance to win an Olympic medal that he very likely would have won due to his countries politics, but his drive was more of an inward drive as he continued to jump more and more as he wanted to better himself, and on July twenty ninth, nineteen eighty nine, at the Central America and Caribbean Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he did something no one had ever done before when he jumped two point four to four meters, which is eight feet which is the average height of a ceiling in the average house in America, and no person in recorded history has ever done this feat before or since. But he wasn't done, and despite the following year in nineteen ninety him having issues with his knees and heels and being in and out of competitions, but he came back in nineteen ninety one to continue his dominance and was able to make it to the nineteen ninety two Olympics in Barcelona, his very first Olympic, facing against the best competition in the world and with the bar set at two point three five meters and all other competitors missing, including himself, when he missed two times and on his final attempt was able to pass the bar, giving him his very first gold medal at two point three five meters or seven feet nine and quarter inch. But in nineteen ninety three he came back. At the World Indoor Championships, he was able to break his own record jumping two point four five meters or eight feet in a quarter inch, which is the current world record and the fifth longest world record that has not been broken in track and field history. And in nineteen ninety six at the Atlanta Olympics, despite struggling with nagging injuries, he tried to defend his title, but sadly was not able to make even the podium, as he qualified for the finals but was only able to finish in eleventh place. Following this, he underwent surgery to heal his knee and heel injuries and skipped the nineteen ninety seven season to rehab and came back strong, and then at the nineteen ninety nine Pan am At Games, Santa Mayor won the Olympic gold medal, but just a few days after that, the game's officials announced that his YearIn had tested positive for drugs in cocaine, and he was stripped of his medal and sent back to Cuba in disgrace. The time doping was rampant in the Olympic Athletics. We often remember Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who stripped his gold medal at the nineteen eighty eight Sole Olympics for winning the one hundred meter dash, although Sante Mayor vietname ly denied that he had done any drugs as he was a huge anti drug promoter, but despite everything, he was banned for two years, although his suspension was cut in half and he was able to compete at the age of thirty two at the Olympic Games at Sydney, being one of the oldest competitors in his events, and despite the finals being rainy and windy, he was still able to jump. He was able to jump two point three two meters, which is good enough for silver medal, just behind Russians Sergey Klingen, and shortly after this, Javier Sante Mayor, the greatest high jumper in history, retired from jumping, although part of his retirement was due to him actually testing positive again for an antabolic steroid, and to avoid a life time high band for having a second positive test, he instead retired. Although Javier Sante Mayord still claims innocence in both these tests, and even the presidents of Cuba at the time, Fidel Castro, said that the Cuban American mafia had set him up to bring down the Cuban community, as he was the greatest Cuban athlete at the time, although Santa Mayor claims that an Achilles attendant injury was the reason why he actually retired. Either way, it was close to the end of his career and it was a good time for him to start this murky area he was entering in whether injuries, mafia steroids, who knows. He still is one of the greatest jumpers to ever live, and his highest vertical jump was measured to be forty nine inches, which is still among the highest of all time, and he still has the record for the three highest high jumps of all time and not one person has ever jumped over eight feet besides Javier Santa Mayor. It's a great company to be in as he is the only one in the world, and it would have been great to see how many medals he could have won if he was just allowed to compete outside of all the political unrest during the nineteen eighties. If you like this story, please let us know, leave us a rating or review wherever you're listening, and you can even leave us a comment saying a topic you would love us to cover and leave us your name so we can get that done just for you. And come back tomorrow for more daily sports history. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question why did Javier Santa Mayor not compete in the Olympics till nineteen ninety two at Barcelona? And the answer was due to Cuba politics not wanting to support the anti communist countries of America and South Korea at the nineteen eighty four Los Angeles Games and the nineteen eighty eight Soul Games.