Alexander Alexejewitsch Sisonenko

Alexander Sisonenko
Player information
Full name	Alexander Alexejewitsch Sisonenko
birthday	July 27, 1959
place of birth	Zaporizhia, Soviet Union
date of death	5th January 2012
Place of death	Saint Petersburg, Russia
size	239 cm
position	center
Clubs as active
1976–1979 Spartak Leningrad 1979–1986 Stroitel Kuibyshev
National team
	Soviet Union	12

Alexander Sizonenko and Georg Wessels

Alexander Sizonenko ( Russian Александр Алексеевич Сизоненко , Ukrainian Олександр Олексійович Сизоненко *  27. July 1959 in Zaporizhia , Ukrainian SSR , † 5. January 2012 in Saint Petersburg , Russia ) was a Soviet basketball player and at times the greatest living human being. Born in Ukraine Sisonenko suffered because of a pituitary - tumor under a acromegaly , which caused him his life continue to grow, and in 1991 by the Guinness World Records recognized as the greatest living human being. As a basketball player, Sisonenko became a national player before he had to end his career in 1986 because of the stunted growth.

Sisonenko came to Saint Petersburg in 1976, which was still called Leningrad in Soviet times, and played for the local club and Soviet runner-up Spartak. In 1978 it was enough for another runner-up before Sisonenko went to Kuibyshev , where he played for the Stroitel club until 1986, which, however, could not place in the front field of the Soviet championship. Sisonenko came to twelve missions in the Soviet national team, without being able to qualify for a squad in a championship finals. Sisonenko, who was severely restricted in his mobility and agility on the field due to his persistent growth disorders, had to end his career as a basketball player at the age of 27.

In 1988 Sisonenko made an appearance as Giant in Seven at One Stroke , a film adaptation of the fairy tale The Brave Little Tailor . In 1991, the Guinness Book of Records recognized him as the tallest living person with a measured body length of 2.39 m. Sisonenko then lived in Saint Petersburg with his 1.74 m tall wife Svetlana, who was married in 1987 and later divorced, and his son Alexander, who was born in 1994. Sisonenko soon had to apply for a pension because his bones and heart could no longer support his body mass. He had to move with a stick, because when standing upright, the spine no longer held his body and he was pushed in by about 11 cm. Sisonenko, who was living on a low pension, reached a body length of over 2.40 m in a lying state towards the end of his life and weighed over 200 kg and received an offer from Gunther von Hagens to plastinate his body after his death for a fee during his lifetime allow. Sisonenko refused this offer. After a fall and complications, he had to spend the summer of 2011 in hospital before he was discharged again in November 2011 and died in January 2012 at the age of 52 in his apartment.

See also

• List of tallest people

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Since Sisonenko continued to grow throughout his life, this length specification is only an approximate height, which was measured in 1991.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Thomas Avenarius: Mephisto and the giant of St. Petersburg. Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 1, 2004, accessed April 30, 2013 (online publication May 17, 2010).  
3. ↑ Alexander Sizonenko - 7 feet 10.1 inches (239 cm). TheTallestMan.com, accessed April 30, 2013 . 
4. ↑ “I don't want to be a scarecrow”. Novaya Gazeta , March 10, 2005, accessed April 30, 2013 (Russian). 
5. ↑ Alexander Sisonenko. Kino-Teatr.ru, accessed April 30, 2013 (Russian). 
6. ^ According to: Bernward Loheide: Shoe size 63 from Westphalia. Long People Club Hannover / klm-hannover.de, April 1998, accessed on April 30, 2013 .  his wife was 1.65 m tall.
7. ↑ Alina Braun: 2.5-meter man: The long suffering of "Big Alex". Spiegel Online , January 14, 2012, accessed April 30, 2013 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Jens Hartmann: This is how the longest person in the world lives. In: Bild am Sonntag . Long People Club Hannover / klm-hannover.de, 23 August 1998, accessed on 30 April 2013 .