Sultan Kosen is 27 years old and now officially in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Tallest Man. Kosen, from Turkey, stands a towering 8'1" tall and also has hands that would rival a giant. He is proud of his award and gleamed with pride in hopes for a better life when presented with the award on the Today show this morning.
Guinness Book of World Records editor Craig Glenday presented a plaque to Kosen honoring him as the “World’s Tallest Man”. He is the tallest man Guinness has been able to document in 20 years.
Kosen stood tall among the tallest of buildings in Rockefeller Center in Manhattan this morning. It was his first stop since leaving his town of 320 people in eastern Turkey as part of a Guinness promotional tour. Sultan Kosen will be visiting Los Angeles, Austria, Portugal, Spain and Italy before heading back to his home country. He has become a national hero in his country.
Hopefully the Guinness award will help Kosen move out of a past full of difficult times. He was diagnosed with pituitary gigantism at age 10 after doctors discovered a tumor behind his eyes; the tumor had put excess pressure on his pituitary gland and caused his extreme growth. A series of surgeries to stop his growth were finally successful last year.
“Up until now, I’ve really had a difficult life,” Kosen told Lauer and Vieira through Garrett. “But I’m happy. From now, I’m really going to have it a lot easier.”
Kosen is one of only 10 confirmed or reliably reported cases in which humans have grown past the eight foot (2.44 meter) mark, according to Guinness.
What is on Sultan Kosen's agenda as the Tallest Man in the World? Love. Kosen wants to find a girlfriend.
Yet for the big man with the big heart, finding love has been the tallest order.
"To this day, I haven't had a girlfriend because, with my height, they're generally frightened," he said. "But eventually that's one thing I really want to have - and she doesn't have to be as tall as me."
With his positive spirit, soft-spoken demeanor and just the fact that Sultan Kosen has made it through some rough medical hurdles, it seems only natural that love won't be far off in his future.
Written by Cheryl Phillips
Providence, RI
Exclusive to HULIQ.com
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