(FIBA / Journal Metro)
I’d call myself a relatively tall guy, at 6’3 I can almost dunk a basketball, but I need a huge running start and someone to pass the ball to me mid-flight so I can MAYBE complete what is one of my life goals… Then there’s Olivier Rioux, a 7’5 teenager from the land of Montreal that basically does not even need to jump when accomplishing this tremendous feat.
Rioux is a genetic anomaly, in fact, he recently just claimed the official title as the world’s tallest teenager according to Guinness World Records. As Rioux kept growing with no end in sight, he actually looked forward to perhaps one day achieve the record one he reached his later teens.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CT-L4wUt5Zl/
Apart from breaking records in the height department, Rioux has always conquered the paint in basketball throughout his life. Rioux is the perfect centre you could ask for in youth basketball, he is bascially a human flyswatter around his team’s rim and a put-back machine on the other end. His unique physique landed him a lucrative scholarship to go play with the IMG Academy in Florida, a highly praised program where the likes of other major athletes like Serena and Venus Williams went to seek education.
Before his season began in Florida, Rioux had the oppurunity to represent his nation at the FIBA U16 World Championship, and with his rebouding and defensive prowess, he was a large contributor to help Canada garner a bronze medal at the tournament.
(FIBA / FIBA.com)
One of the best attributes to compliment Rioux with his outrageous size is his mobility, most guys that breach the 7’0 barrier have a real difficult time navigating the court at higher speeds than the rest of the competition, just take a look at the likes of Manute Bol, Boban Marjanovic, or the infamous Robert Bobroczky, who stood at 7’7 and weighed a mere 210lbs. Rioux doesn’t have the same troubles as a majority of these others do, he actually can manuever around the court quite smoothly for a kid of his size, he’s no Damian Lillard but for what he has, it’s truly astonishing.
Olivier Rioux made a Guinness WORLD RECORD by being the tallest teenager alive 🔥
My guy checked in at 7’5 1/3” 😳 pic.twitter.com/AlBUXSU2Vx
— Overtime (@overtime) September 17, 2021
If I were to compare Rioux to anyone, I would almost compare him to the likes of a guy like Yao Ming, definitly not to the same degree, but then take this into consideration. We did not know nearly anything about Ming until the late 90’s, we have little to no info on him as a 15-16-year old. Ming peaked at 7’6 and went on to have a explosive NBA career that would have probably been a lot more productive if it were not for a plague of injuries. With Rioux’s formidable abilties and above-average mobility for a bigman of his size, I can see him filling the role of a centre in the NBA down the road.
And possibly even a bigger role on Canada’s national squad as the team gets ever so better, every single year.