Sotomayor tests positive for cocaine

Sotomayor, the world indoor and outdoor record-holder in the high jump and the only one to clear 2.44 metres, tested positive for cocaine, Pan American Games officials said.

After winning four Pan Am Games titles, an Olympic gold medal in 1992, two outdoor world championships and four world indoor titles, Sotomayor now perhaps will be best remembered for the shame he brought upon his country.

Just like Ben Johnson.

Johnson was hero-worshipped by Canadians after sprinting to a world record in the 100 metres at the 1988 Olympic Games in South Korea. A couple of days later, he was stripped of his gold medal when Olympic officials found high levels of anabolic steroids in his urine sample. Johnson left Seoul in disgrace.

With his familiar wraparound glasses, the long-legged, 1.93-metre Sotomayor is a presence wherever he goes in Cuba, and he thrives on the attention.

He is a wealthy man, with a home provided by the government, a red Mercedes Benz and a huge watch collection.

He is very influential in Cuba sports circles and has a close relationship with deputy Sports Minister Alberto Juantorena, the 1976 Olympic 400-metre and 800-metre gold medallist.

Sotomayor is considered the best high jumper ever — better than American Dick Fosbury — whose backward head-first Fosbury flop innovation is used by all high jumpers, better than Russian Valery Brumel.

No one has accomplished more than the 31-year-old Cuban.

Probably no one had more strength and speed than Sotomayor. Probably no one was a better technician. Probably no one was more of a perfectionist.

Sotomayor is from Limonar, Cuba, a small town in the central part of the island, about 100 kilometres from Havana. Like most Cuban youngsters, he grew up playing baseball and loved playing center field.

He started in athletics at 9, and by 13 he was exclusively a high jumper, clearing 1.65 meters. Six years later, he had won junior titles at the Pan Am Games and at the World Junior Championships and raised his career best to 2.36m.

Sotomayor won the first of his record four Pan Am titles in 1987 at Indianapolis. Five days after missing the 1988 Olympics because of Cuba’s absence, Sotomayor cleared a world record 2.43 higher than the winning jump at the Seoul Games.

In 1989, he broke world records twice, soaring 2.43 m indoors, then making his historic 2.44-metre leap at San Juan. Sotomayor had one more world record in him, jumping 2.45m in 1993, one year after winning the Olympic gold.

All that great jumping, all those wonderful accomplishments, all that pride that made Sotomayor one of the world’s great athletes was washed away yesterday with one positive doping test.