World’s Tallest Woman
March 30, 2006 | 85 Comments
In 1976 Sandy Allen was declared the “world’s tallest woman - living” by Guinness Book of World Records. Allen is a towering lady at 7′ 7 1/4″. Amazingly this is not far beyond the recognized world’s tallest living man - Xi Shun (7′ 8.95″). Allen has since spent her life traveling around the world encouraging people that it is OK to be different. Allen was born in 1955, at age 22 she underwent surgery to stop her growth. Without this she would have continued to grow and suffer further medical problems associated with gigantism. In 2001 John Kleiman wrote Cast a Giant Shadow: The Inspirational Life Story of Sandy Allen the World’s Tallest Living Woman.
There is some debate on the internet about if Allen is still in fact tallest. De-Fen Yao has been measured at 7′ 8 1/2″. This has not been confirmed by Guinness Book though. (What do these people do?) However, TallWomen.org makes the point that if she is “only” 7′ 7″ which some sources claim, she is still taller than Sandy Allen who can no longer stand up straight and is sadly confined to a wheel-chair now. If Sandy could still stand her bodyweight seems to have caused her back to arch so she can no longer be considered to be 7′ 7 1/4″. I agree that either way Gunness Book needs an update.
Another very tall woman is Heather Greene who has some pictures that circle the net making her look extremely tall, yet she “only” measures in at 6′ 6 1/2″.
Tags: de-fen yao, gigantism, guinness, guinness book of world records, Heather Greene, sandy allen, tall, tallest woman, world record, world's tallest, xi shun