Javier Sotomayor Sanabria 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; his personal best of 2.45 m makes him the only person ever to have cleared eight feet. He cleared eight feet twice, the first time with 2.44m in 1989 in Sant Juan.
Sotomayor in 2009
Sotomayor's dominance of all-time best high jumps.
The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat for landing. Since ancient times, competitors have introduced increasingly effective techniques to arrive at the current form, and the current universally preferred method is the Fosbury Flop, in which athletes run towards the bar and leap head first with their back to the bar.
Canadian high jumper Nicole Forrester demonstrating the Fosbury flop
Yelena Slesarenko hitting the bar while using the Fosbury Flop technique
Konstantinos Tsiklitiras during the standing high jump competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Gold medal winner Ethel Catherwood of Canada scissors over the bar at the 1928 Summer Olympics. Her winning result was 1.59 m (5 ft 2+1⁄2 in).
