Javier Sotomayor Sanabria is a Cuban former track and field athlete who specialized in the high jump and is the current world record holder. His world record of 2.45 m and second-highest jump of 2.44 make him the only person ever to have cleared eight feet (2.44 m). Javier Sotomayor (Cuba) set the men's high jump world record of 2.43 m in Salamanca, Spain on September 8, 1988. It stood 11 months, until Javier Sotomayor's 2.44 m on July 29, 1989. Wiki link