World’s Tallest Woman
March 30, 2006 | 79 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
World’s Tallest Man
August 12, 2005 | 102 Comments
Lately I have been getting a lot of incoming search terms related to my World’s Tallest Buildings Story. I have decided it must be my duty to research who holds this title. As with most things, there is slightly more complexity than a simple person’s name.
Hussein Bisad (7′9″) claims to be the world’s tallest man. However USAToday has an article about Leonid Stadnyk (8′4″) and far more likely to hold the title. However, Guinness Book says Xi Shun (7′8.95″) is the tallest. Who officially beat the previous record holder Radhouse Charbib by 0.07 in. Charbib has since passed away.
So who’s tallest Stadnyk, Bisad, or Shun? I can’t say definitively, but I believe it is Stadnyk.
A more commonly accepted and therefore more simple answer is who’s the tallest person ever. This is assuredly Robert Pershing Wadlow (8′11.1″) who died in Alton, Illinois weighing 490 pounds.
I think it is also important to note that the tallet known living woman is De-Fen Yao who supposedly stands 7′8.5″. Though Guinness claims it is Sandy Allan (7′7″).
Shun:
Guinness Book of World Records: Tallest Man - Living
Stadnyk:
ArtUkraine.com: Leonid Stadnyk
Wikipedia (Deutsch): Leonid Stadnyk
Bisad:
Celebrities Worldwide: Bedding the Worlds Tallest Man!
Flickr Image
Franco Shoes: Mr Big Foot
Wadlow:
Alton Museum of History: Robert Pershinng Wadlow
Guinness Boook of World Records: Tallest Man
Google weighs in on question too. They seem to accept Guinness as the authority, yet recognize the existance of Stadnyk.
Tags: guinness, guinness book of records, height, tall, tall person, tallest, tallest man, tallest woman, world record, worlds tallest man