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GWR Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday explains why Robert Wadlow will always be the tallest man ever
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Apr 3, 2023
Standing at a staggering height of 8 foot and 11 inches, Robert Wadlow is the tallest person to have ever lived. Sadly, his life was cut tragically short when an infection led to his death in 1940. Our editor-in-chief, Craig Glenday, investigates whether we will ever see the likes of Wadlow again, towering over the rest of humanity. The world's current tallest person, Sultan Kosen, stands at 8 foot and 3 inches and science enabled the Turkish giant to stop growing. Why won't we see anyone taller than Wadlow? How has science advanced to mean that the record for tallest ever human will never be beaten?
View Transcript
0:00
There's one world record that I can guarantee
that you've got no chance of achieving
0:12
In fact, I'm so confident that no one will ever beat this record
that I'm prepared to put up £1,000 of my own money on it
0:23
And this is the man you've got to
beat, the incredible 8 foot 11.1.1
0:29
1 inch Robert Pershing Wadlow, the
tallest living person of all time
0:36
I'm Craig Glendey, editor-in-chief at Guinness World Records. And over the
past 18 years, I've probably measured more of the world's tallest people
0:45
than anyone else on the planet. But I've never yet
met anyone who comes close to the phenomenal height
0:52
of the Alton giant Robert Wadlow. His statue was
so unprecedented and so far beyond anyone else
0:59
ever measured scientifically that I
doubt will ever see his likes again
1:05
So here's why I'm confident that
Wadler's record will never be beaten
1:09
and why my thousand pounds will be
staying right here in my pocket
1:17
To begin with, we can write off at
least half of the world's population
1:23
That's because there's never been a time in history
when a woman has been the tallest ever human
1:30
In fact, there's only one woman who's ever
held the record for tallest living human being
1:35
and that's Zeng Jin Nian of China. Zeng was
born in Hunan province in south central China
1:41
and reached a peak height of a rather
exalted 8 foot 1 or 246.3 centimetres
1:49
So this makes her the only
woman to exceed 8 foot tall
1:55
Impressive for sure, but still 10
inches shy. of Robert Woddlow's record
2:01
Even women who were supposedly taller, but
never officially measured, came up short
2:07
like the circus performer giant Amazon Queen Marianna Vida
of Germany, who was promoted as being 8 foot 4 inches
2:16
as was Katja van of the
Netherlands. Oh, and by the way
2:20
if you are going to lie about being 8 foot 4,
don't be photographed standing in a doorway
2:27
or next to someone of average height. Oh, and don't think that
wearing a fancy hat's going to help you measure up either
2:38
We can also discount everyone who's simply genetically tall. Some
people are just blessed or cursed, depending on your point of view
2:46
like the Zegward family of the Netherlands. Here, mum, dad
and three siblings currently average six foot seven inches
2:56
making them the tallest family in the world. When you meet
tall twins, it's usually because they share this genetic trait
3:05
Take the American sisters Claire and Anne
Recht, for example, they both stretch to six
3:09
foot seven inches, or just over two metres tall. The tallest genetically tall person I ever met and measured was Neil
Fingleton who for a while at least was the UK tallest living man Back in 2008 Neil who played US college basketball
3:28
was an imposing 7 foot 7.7 and a half
inches, or 2 metres, 32 centimetres
3:34
His grandfather was 6 foot 8, his
sister was 6 foot 4, so, you know, tall
3:40
He probably won't recognise Neil, but he played... Magna Tundoveig,
or Magna Mighty King of the Giants in the TV show Game of Thrones
3:49
where he was scaled up using CGI to
an even taller height of 12 feet
3:55
The reason for this, by the way, is interesting. If
you've ever hung out with an extremely tall person
4:02
you'll notice that they just walk differently.
Their biomechanics are just different
4:08
Using CGI to make an average height
actor look tall just doesn't cuff
4:13
it's not authentic hence the use of actual
giants and yes if you're wondering tall people
4:21
are likely to make tall babies the largest
ever infant was born to Canada's Anna Swan
4:28
and her husband Martin Van Buren Bates of Kentucky
both of whom towered upwards of 7 foot 11
4:36
inches their baby measured an unprecedented
28 inches from head to toe at Burr. Ouch
4:45
The current tallest living married couple is the basketball
player Sun Ming Ming and volleyball player Zhu Yan
4:52
both of China, although they haven't
yet started a family. When he was active
4:57
Sun was the tallest basketball player
in the world at 7 foot 9 inches
5:03
and Zhu is 6 foot 1 in 3 quarters, so
between them they reach 13 foot 10 inches
5:09
If they do have children, the chances
are high that the kids will be
5:13
well, high. But Sun Ming Ming's height
didn't just come from his genes
5:20
He is pathologically tall, which means his
extreme stature is a result of a medical condition
5:27
It was discovered in 2005 that Sun Ming Ming's
extraordinary height was most likely caused
5:33
by an overproduction of growth hormones.
To understand the role of growth hormones
5:39
we need to go back to puberty. The pituitary
gland sets off the process of puberty
5:47
by increasing the secretion of that hormone
which controls the rate of growth of the body
5:53
Therefore, puberty is introduced by a rapid
spurt of growth. Meet Sultan Khosin of Turkey
6:00
currently the world's tallest living human being. Hello?
How are you? For the average person, the growing pain
6:13
of puberty come to an end when chemical
signals are sent to our bones telling
6:18
them to stop growing but in Sultan's
case something went wrong and the growth
6:23
hormones kept on surging the result is
that his bones kept on growing to find
6:31
the cause of Sultan excessive growth we need to dig around inside his skull within the brain just
in line with the ears and the middle of the forehead lies a tiny organ called the pituitary gland
6:45
It's no bigger than a garden pea,
but despite its minuscule size
6:50
it's the thing that makes most giants giant. This is the
organ that regulates the production of growth hormone
6:57
and when it malfunctions, as it did with
sultan, it can release too much growth hormone
7:03
Sultan was just 10 years old when he
experienced a sudden explosion in his growth
7:10
The reason, it was a tumour on his pituitary gland. Sadly,
it wasn't properly diagnosed until he was in his 20s
7:18
and it wasn't until he reached the age of
28 that it was finally surgically removed
7:25
Only then did Sultan stop growing, at
the incredible height of 8 foot 3 inches
7:31
But what then about Robert Wadlow? How did he
reach the heady heights of 8 foot 11 inches
7:39
a whole 8 inches taller than Sultan? Well, in Robert's case,
his pituitary gland was also compromised at an early age
7:49
not from a tumour, but from a condition known as hypertrophy,
or as the Greeks would have it, excessive nourishment
7:57
which just means it was big,
just much bigger than a lot
8:01
expected. Robert was born in Alton, Illinois in
1918 and his astronomic growth began from the very
8:12
start. By the age of just six years old, he was
already five foot seven. I mean, that's my height
8:19
at six years old. By the end of the following year,
he was taller than his father, and he crossed the
8:26
eight foot mark at the age of
16. It was shortly after his 21st
8:31
birthday at the height of 8 foot 9 inches that he
was recognised without any doubt to be the tallest
8:38
human to be ever scientifically measured.
Robert's doctors diagnosed a pituitary gland is
8:46
hypertrophic and the cause of all of his
problems, but they advised the family to avoid any
8:51
attempts at removing it surgically. The risk of
death, they said, was simply too high. So Robert
8:59
soldiered on and made the most of the most of the first. of his unique
condition, initially at least enjoying or coping with the adulation
9:07
He travelled thousands of miles each year, making personal
appearances. He became a nationwide superstar, in fact
9:14
But he also came to the attention of doctors, a number of whom
jostled to be the one to document this unrival medical mystery
9:24
Wadlow's family were reluctant to take
part in two probing an investigation
9:28
Robert just wanted to get on with his life. Finally, they
gave into pressure put on them by Dr Charles Humberd
9:36
As they feared, though, Dr. Humberd was
a little too intrusive for their liking
9:42
and his paper, published in the prestigious
journal of the American Medical Association
9:47
seemed more like an attack on the poor Wadler. The family felt that much of what was written was inappropriate man just wrong
particularly in reference to Robert mental state and personality The family even went as far as trying to sue Dr Humberd for a libel
10:07
but they ultimately failed in their lawsuit.
In 1940, Robert became seriously ill. He would
10:14
embark on long promotional tours for the
Peter's Shoe Company, and it was during one of
10:19
these trips to Manistee in Michigan that Robert
first noticed something wrong with his leg
10:26
For a while now he'd been wearing a metal brace
to support his ankle and leg whilst walking
10:32
but his lack of feeling in his extremities
meant that Robert didn't notice the brace
10:37
rubbing against his skin. It quickly became
infected and Robert was confined to a hotel
10:44
unwilling or unable to go to
hospital. There he was spread out of
10:49
on two beds pushed together and a
makeshift hospital was set up around him
10:55
Despite transfusions, Robert finally succumbed to the infection. And
on the 15th of July 1940, at the age of just 22 years old, Robert died
11:08
It's tragic to think that a minor
inconvenience like an infected ankle
11:13
something that can be treated quickly
and easily today with just antibiotics
11:17
was 80 years ago a death sentence. But ultimately, this is precisely
the reason why I think we'll never see the likes of Robert Wadlow again
11:30
Developments in medicine and surgery are now sufficiently
advanced to nip these kinds of problems in the bud
11:37
long before they become life-threatening. We can slow or halt
excessive growth and deal with the complications of a giant life
11:45
long before anyone reaches anywhere close to Wardlow's perilous 8-11
stature. Even the side effects of extremely rare chromosomal disorders
11:56
such as the one that plagued the record-breaking teenager Brendan
Adams, can be mitigated once doctors know what they're dealing with
12:04
So if we discount women and those
who are just genetically tall
12:08
and those who have a pituitary gland or chromosomal
disorder that can't be dealt with by medical science
12:14
we're left with, well, no one. We're all becoming
ever more connected globally and the world
12:22
continues to shrink every day. So the chances
of a child, even in the most remote part of the
12:28
planet, growing up with a pituitary issue that's
more extreme than Robert Waddlew's and yet not
12:34
treated by doctors is rare. In fact, so rare
that I don't believe it can ever happen again
12:41
And that, my friends, is why my thousands. pounds is safe. I'm
pleased to be holding on to my money, not particularly because I don't
12:50
want to lose a grand, I mean who does, but because
I'm genuinely relieved that no one will have to endure
12:57
the challenges and the pains faced by Robert
Woodlow, the gentleman giant who took it all
13:03
in his very, very long stride
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