Javier Sotomayor Sanabria (Spanish pronunciation: [xaˈβjeɾ sotomaˈʝoɾ]; born 13 October 1967) is a Cuban former track and field athlete who specialized in the high jump and is the current world record holder.

Sotomayor is a two-time gold medalist at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, and also won two silver medals at the competition.

The son of a day-care worker and a sugar factory maintenance man, Sotomayor was first sent to a Cuban sports school as a prospective basketball player because of his height.

He continued to improve the following year with a best jump of 2.36 m (7 ft 8+3⁄4 in) at a meet in Santiago de Cuba on 23 February 1986.

He won his first international title in 1987, at the Pan American Games, and established a new personal best of 2.37 m (7 ft 9+1⁄4 in) at a meet in Athens, Greece on 20 June 1987.

[5] On 8 September 1988, at a meet held in Salamanca, Spain – just four days before the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Summer Olympics – he set a world record of 2.43 m (7 ft 11+1⁄2 in).

He outjumped the competition, establishing a new World Championships record of 2.40 m (7 ft 10+1⁄4 in): the second-place jumper, Artur Partyka (Poland) jumped 2.37.

The last time he would clear 2.40 m (7 ft 10+1⁄4 in) was on 25 March 1995 at the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

He cleared the winning height of 2.37 m (7 ft 9+1⁄4 in) on 8 August, but finished second to Troy Kemp (Bahamas) on the basis of missed jumps.

Sotomayor underwent treatment for knee and heel injuries after his poor showing in the Atlanta Olympics and skipped the 1997 indoor season.

At the time, this was widely regarded as the biggest drug scandal in the sport of track and field in over a decade (since Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics).

His suspension was upheld in June 2000, but in August the IAAF cut the penalty in half – effectively to time served – and allowed him to compete at Sydney at the age of 32.

The finals of the men's high jump were held on Sunday September 24, in rainy, windy conditions which worsened as the event progressed.

Another medal favorite, Stefan Holm (Sweden), finished fourth and complained that the IAAF should not have reduced Sotomayor's two-year suspension.

Only Bohdan Bondarenko and Mutaz Essa Barshim have jumped higher outdoors since, although four men equaled the mark.

)[12] Sotomayor tested positive for cocaine at the 1999 Pan American Games, which Cuban president Fidel Castro claimed was a set-up by the Cuban-American Mafia.

The Cuban federation continued to appeal his case, citing a clause in the IAAF rulebook that allows drug bans to be modified under "exceptional circumstances".

In a controversial decision announced on August 2, the IAAF shortened the suspension to one year – which had elapsed on July 30 – thereby allowing him to compete in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

[14] IAAF's motivation for this action was that Sotomayor had done a great deal for the sport, had passed hundreds of drug tests during his long career, and acted exemplarily throughout.

[15] Two weeks after his suspension was lifted, Sotomayor returned to competition at a small track meet in Montauban, France, which he won with a jump of 2.28 m (7 ft 5+3⁄4 in).

In September 2001, Sotomayor announced that he would end his career, following another positive drug test during a training camp in June, this time for the anabolic steroid nandrolone.

[16] These allegations never gained strong support in his home country Cuba,[16] although former IAAF Vice President and Doping Commission Chairman Arne Ljungqvist asserted these were both "crystal clear cases" in a Swedish interview.