I guess athleticism runs in the family, Holley Mangold, sister of former Jets center, Nick Mangold, is one of the biggest female Olympic weightlifters in the world. Mangold played football in high school and started lifting weights in 2008. Four years later, she qualified for the London Olympics but tore a wrist tendon before the competition and ended up placing tenth out of fourteen competitors.
She used to weigh 500 pounds but has lost a lot of weight and even participated in the reality weight loss competition “The Biggest Loser.” These days, Mangold coaches the Dayton Barbell Club in Ohio.
The Tree Man – 6’7″
The next athlete on our list is not a famous sportsman by regular standards. Southern California-based personal trainer Danny Jones is 6ft 7in tall and achieved inadvertent fame after a Twitter user saw a photo of him and decided he looked more like a tree than a man.
“This [is] not a man, this [is] a tree.” reads the now infamous tweet from the man who dubbed Jones Tree Man. Jones, who woke up to thousands of new followers, didn’t understand the tree reference at first, but he took it with a smile and seemed happy with his new-found social media fame.
Amazon Eve – 6’8″
Erika Ervin, nicknamed “Amazon Eve,” is the tallest model in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. She is 6 foot 8 inches tall without heels and was discovered while in Australia by the editor of Zoo Weekly and was featured on its cover.
Her unusual height and boundless confidence have also paved the way for her as a personal trainer and actress. She recently starred in the popular FX TV show American Horror Story and has two new movies coming out soon.
Mamadou N’Diaye – 7’6″
Senegalese-born Mamadou N’Diaye went to UC Irvine at 18 years old, where he became the tallest basketball player in the NCAA Division. In 2016, he was drafted and spent some time with the Golden State Warriors. He currently plays for Fuerza Regia de Monterrey in the Mexican league.
At 7ft 6in, N’Diaye is known for his enormous wingspan and is often compared to Yao Ming and Rudy Gobert. Instead of trying to emulate others, he is trying to develop his own identity and legacy as a player.
Randy Johnson – 6’8″
“The Big Unit” seems like a nickname that is hard to live up to, but Randy Johnson at 6ft 8in is more than equal to the task. Johnson played major league baseball for an astounding 22 seasons on six different teams, but mostly for the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks.
He is famous for being the fifth most successful left-handed baseball player of all time and for having the second-most career strikeouts (4,875) in MLB history. “The Big Unit” definitely made a big impact on professional baseball.