As you are already aware, most athletes are usually of considerable size. And being the tallest doesn't make you the largest -- some athletes have so much mass they need special requirements for their vehicles. Whether their size comes from their height or muscle mass, there's no denying that these athletes worked hard on their physique to perform at the top of their game.
Here are the world's largest athletes of current and past.
Sun Ming Ming Means Business
Rush Hour fans might remember this walking giant from the third installment of the film, but did you know he was a basketball player?
Sun Ming Ming played in the CBA and was a two-time champion in 2012 and 2014. Ming is also the tallest basketball player in the world, standing at 7'9"!
There's A Reason He's The Big Show
The Big Show has been wrestling for decades now and is still to this day one of the largest to ever step foot in the ring. Prior to being Big Show, his name was simply The Giant while he was wrestling in the WCW. The name change happened when he started competing in the WWE.
Through all his years of experience, the 7'0", 450-pounder is one of the most decorated wrestlers in history. When he gets one of his opponents with his signature move, "The Choke Slam", you can pretty much call it curtains for whoever he's up against.
The Big Diesel!
Any sports fan knows who Shaquille O'Neal is and if you are unaware, he's just a four-time NBA champion. He even has a statue outside the Staples Center of him dunking with an intense fervor. That was pretty much how he played every game when he stepped on the court -- with passion and force.
O'Neal was virtually unstoppable and his only downfall was the fact that he couldn't hit from the free throw line. Standing at 7'1" and weighing in at 325 pounds, the only thing teams could do with him was the hated "Hack-a-Shaq" which was an intentional foul sending him to the free throw line.
Crouching Might Be A Problem For Peter
The person you see above performing a spectacular kick while completely horizontal is Peter Crouch. Crouch's height is legendary. His nickname is Mr. Roboto. What's surprising is, when Crouch was younger, coaches didn't believe in him too much. They thought he was just a tall for nothing player.
"It was not easy being a very tall, skinny teenager who many coaches did not rate because they could not see beyond his unusual build," the Independent wrote. Crouch had to turn doubters into believers and that is exactly what he did. The 6'7" striker is now a world-renowned player.
They Don't Call Him The Great Khali For Fun
Coming in at 347 lbs and standing 7'1", The Great Khali was enormous. He routinely dwarfed opponents as you see in the image above. It isn't a fair fight in the ring with him unless you have at 275 lbs on you. Not everyone has that.
He is an Indian-born wrestler and the fourth tallest in WWE history as of 2017. In 2007, he became the World Heavyweight Champion of the WWE. You can imagine if wrestling were real, it would be pretty hard to take him down.
The Biggest Fastest Man Ever
Usain Bolt is the fastest man in history, so why is he on this list? Bolt is an anomaly. He wasn't supposed to dominate the world of sprinting like he did.
"Ten years ago,' Dr. Ian Bezodis said to The Telegraph, "most people would have said that being above average height is a disadvantage for sprinters." Standing at 6'5", Bolt has defied physics and changed the way we view athletics.
UFC's Very Own
Stefan Struve has garnered the nickname "The Skyscraper" and for good reason. He's 7'0" and competes in a sport where there is no one near that height at all. You might think that could be a disadvantage for him but he doesn't seem to think so.
"I don’t really see a disadvantage (on being so tall), as long as you use it the way you should use it. If you use it the way you should use it, then there’s not a lot of things they can do," Struve told the media in Rio de Janeiro.
The Canadian Giant
During his stint in the NBA, Sim Bhullar was the tallest active player in the league. Too bad for him, height didn't translate to talent and he is now playing overseas professionally for the Dacin Tigers of the Taiwanese Super Basketball League. Bhullar is 7'5" tall and he made NBA history by being the first player of Indian descent to play in the league.
Another historic fact about him is that he is the sixth tallest player in NBA history. Can you blame the Sacramento Kings for giving him a try?
Be Mindful Of The Height
Tennis is an exhilarating sport to watch but it is even more intense to play. Running back and forth striking a tiny little ball with precise precision takes skill and precision to perfect. For Ivo Karlovic, his 6'11" possibly helps when he has to reach across his body to make a return hit but his height means he has to do more for training.
"It is not easy to move around in the field. And I must also increase the resistance, because of my weight, because it is not always easy to carry around the tennis court," he said. "I always have to run there, so it's a challenge. I try to work hard on the resistance."
Ruling The WNBA
Avid sports watchers will tell you that the WNBA is more of a technical sport compared to the NBA. The reasoning behind that is because the ladies aren't as athletic and must rely more on skill and fundamentals. It's not like they're LeBron James just running down the lane dunking on everyone. However, Margo Dydek could have played with the big boys. She stood at 7'2".
"Dydek, who weighed 223 pounds and had a 7-foot wingspan, was distinguished by a grace and agility that belied her size," reported the New York Times. Drafted number one overall in 1998, she, unfortunately, passed away in 2011 at the age of 37.
No One Wants to See Dekoda Watson Charging Them On The Field
Dekoda Watson might not have the height that some of the other athletes on our list have, but at 6'2" and nearly 300 pounds, he's still a force to be reckoned with. Watson started his football career in high school before playing for Florida State University. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2010 NFL draft and currently is a linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers.
Sure, Watson's muscles probably have muscles and there's no way we'd be able to take him down on the field, but off the field, he's a softie. Watson is the founder of Koda's Kids, a foundation that provides opportunities for success to underprivileged kids.
There Goes The Sky Hook!
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a monster on the court. His height advantage was already unfair for opponents during his heyday but he made it even harder to contest him when he would do his signature "Sky Hook". It's a shot that not many do today or are able to pull off. A 7'2" skilled basketball player doing a running hook shot is nearly impossible to stop. Abdul-Jabar sat down with Esquire to discuss his other height advantages.
"I'm able to notice things before other people," he said. "That is one advantage. When I was young and living in New York, I'd be standing on the subway platform and people would want to know 'What train is coming?'"
The Big Fella Curry
Eddy Curry had the height and the potential to be great. Too bad for him, he didn't have the mentality. At 7'0" and 300 pounds, Curry let his weight get the best of him and it ended up causing him his career. You can't run up and down the court competing with other big bodied players if you're out of shape!
One season for him was really bad when he was to play for new head coach Mike D'Antoni, who prefers a uptempo style of play. "The next two seasons would see Curry eat his way into newly-appointed head coach Mike D’Antoni’s doghouse, as Curry showed up overweight and out of shape to training camp both seasons," Bleacherreport stated.
The Savage Suh
Ndamukong Suh earned himself a bad reputation on the field over the length of his playing career but lately, he's been letting his play be his reputation. Having done cruel things in the past to other players like stomping one out, it can be hard to regain the support of fans and your peers. But none of that would have been a problem if Suh never ended up playing football in the first place.
"Coaches had been begging him to play," GQ writes. "A kid that big? That nimble? Suddenly his size, his muscle mass, were assets. It was like coming out of the closet. He was encouraged to hit people." His early coaches had awakened the former 6'4", 307-pound lineman.
The Beast On America's Team
This USC product stands at 6'5" with a weight of 312 pounds. Tyron Smith, (number 77 who you see helping up Tony Romo) was arguably the best blindside offensive lineman in the NFL. Defensive linemen had to exert all of their efforts trying to get past Smith.
The Moreno Valley native had the massive strength to go along with his size, so he was a nightmare for defensive coordinators to try and figure out how to go through him. He once pushed back a defender five yards with one easy shove.
Towering Over Others, Per Usual
Manute Bol was 6'10" at 14 years old, which is taller than 99 percent of American adults and most of the NBA. Once he reached his peak height of 7'7", he was tied for the tallest player to ever play in the NBA. But when he was young, he wasn't into playing basketball.
"The truth is, Bol didn’t like basketball," Sam Mellinger wrote for Kansascity. "Not at first, anyway. But his dad and older brothers — Bol has several older half brothers and half sisters who live with their mom in New Jersey — always wanted him to play."
Andre The Giant
We could just tell you that Andre the Giant stood 7'4" and weighed over 500 pounds and call it a day but that's not enough for this larger than life wrestler. Andre Roussimoff was born in France and he had some very interesting quirks. For instance, he enjoyed moving cars as pranks!
"André rarely (if ever) lifted weights for additional power. His resistance training seemed to come in the form of moving his friends' cars around during nights he was out drinking with friends," wrote Jake Rossen for Mental Floss. "The smaller vehicles could be easily slid over to tight spaces or turned to face the opposite direction."
Wladimir Klitschko
Wladimir Klitschko is a former professional boxer, who competed for more than two decades before retiring in 2017. The two-time world heavyweight champion is 6'6" and weighs around 245 pounds. He ended his successful boxing career with an incredible 64 wins out of 69 fights of which 53 were by knockout.
If you're not familiar with Klitschko, you may be familiar with his fiance—actress Hayden Panettiere. The two have been together since 2009 and welcomed a daughter in 2014. At 5'4", the boxer is 14 inches taller than Panettiere.
Stand Tall, Yao
It's clear that you're pretty large if Shaquille O'Neal has to look up to you. Yao Ming was an NBA player from China who played for the Houston Rockets from 2002 through 2011. Sadly, the gentle giant was forced to retire from the NBA early due to a foot injury that could be seriously threatening if not handled properly.
Ming is so huge, that in 2016 when he was inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame, the moderator was too small to help put on his Hall of Famers jacket. Luckily, O'Neal was in attendance so he quickly assisted with putting the jacket on Ming.
Let Him Open The Pickle Jar
At 5'11", Ronnie Coleman weighs 300 pounds. If you recall earlier from the list, that's the weight of a much taller offensive lineman. Clearly, this Olympic weightlifter is ripped beyond measure. HIs arm is the size of a third grader.
Coleman was asked what gives him an edge over others and he said it's the way he trains. "It would have to be the way I trained," Coleman said. "If you look at some of my training videos and look at some of the other guys training videos you will see that my training was totally different and much more intensive compared to the other guys. That pretty much gave me the edge."