Igor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in the United States, died on Friday at the age of 39, his mother Svetlana Vovkovinska confirmed.
Vovkovinskiy held the Guinness World Record for the tallest living male in the United States. According to a Facebook post by Ms. Vovkovinska, he died in hospital due to heart disease with his brother, wife and children at his side.
Guinness World Records named Vovkovinskiy the tallest living person in the United States at the age of 27. During an episode of The Dr. Oz Show in 2010, the announcement was made.
‘It feels good to finally have proof that I am the tallest man in America. Everyone is always asking me if I’m certain that I’m the tallest and I was never able to prove it. Now that I have this certificate to hang on my wall, I could finally show it!’ Vovkovinskiy had said in 2010.
In 1989, Vovkovinskiy travelled from Ukraine to Rochester, Minnesota, to receive treatment for a disease known as pituitary gigantism. A tumour pushing against his pituitary gland led it to release abnormal quantities of growth hormone, according to his Facebook profile.
He used to have a shoe size of 24 10-E, Guinness said and had trouble squeezing into automobiles and finding comfortable shoes. In 2012, Vovkovinskiy filed a plea to assist him cover the cost of $16,000 in custom-made shoes that would relieve him of his severe agony. He said at the time that he had not owned a pair of shoes that suited him in years. Thousands of people contributed money to him after that and Reebok gave him free custom-made sneakers.
Former President Barack Obama acknowledged him during a campaign event in 2009 after noticing him near the stage wearing a T-shirt that said ‘World’s Biggest Obama Supporter.’
‘His last dinner was: a piece of Kyiv cake and Fanta. A few hours before his death, he was accompanied by Oleh’s [his elder brother Oleh Ladan] wife Alla and children. Igor was glad to see them, and although it was difficult for him to speak, he tried to joke about his nephew Andriy, whether he had learned the Ukrainian language in a month in Ukraine,’ his mother said in the Facebook post.
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As per his web obituary, a memorial ceremony will be conducted on August 28th, with burial to follow at a later date. He was born on September 8, 1982, in Bar, Ukraine, to Vovkovinska and Oleksandr Ladan.
According to Guinness World Records, Sultan Kösen of Turkey was the world’s tallest man in 2016. He is said to be above 8ft 2in tall. Robert Pershing Wadlow of Illinois, who stood at 8ft 11in, was the tallest person ever documented.
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