His height of 2.35 m was actually the visible part of his poor health. The tallest man in the United States died of heart disease at the age of 38 in Minnesota on Friday, his mother announced on Facebook.
American of Ukrainian origin, Igor Vovkovinskiy lived a life marked by illness, a tumor triggering in him an excessive secretion of growth hormones. It is for this reason that his family had settled, in his childhood, in Rochester, a northern city of the United States known for its pole of health.
Appearance in 2013 at Eurovision Song Contest
Already big for his age, the “little one” Igor, despite the treatments, continued to grow to reach a record size for the United States, which was noted by commissioners of the Guinness Book of Records when he was 27 years old. .
During the 2013 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, Igor Vovkovinskiy carried on stage, in his arms, the singer representing Ukraine. He had previously experienced another moment of celebrity in 2009, being noticed by Barack Obama during a political rally. The giant, who sported a “World’s Biggest Obama Supporter” T-shirt and towered over the rallying crowd of activists, had exchanged a handshake with the Democratic president.
A record at 2.72 m
According to the Guinness Book, the tallest man in the world is currently the Turkish Sultan Kösen (2.51 mè). But the tallest man in modern history is an American, Robert Wadlow, who reached the height of 2.72 m. Also suffering from an abnormally high production of growth hormones, he died in 1940, aged only 22.
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