The Guinness Book of World Records first inducted former Russian basketball player Svetlana Pankratova in 2009. Not for her successful basketball career, but for having the longest female legs.
Pankratova resides in the city of Falls Church, located in Northern Virginia and played basketball for three years at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She holds the record of having the most blocked shots in a basketball season (75) and in a career (176). Her legs are four feet four inches long (51.9 inches) and she stands at a height of six feet five inches.
Growing up in Volgograd, Russia Pankratova said that it was difficult for her mother to find clothes for her and kids would make fun of her height.
"It wasn't easy because kids do tease you. They tease whenever something is — I wouldn't say not normal — but when something is different. So I would get teased a lot for being tall," said Pankratova.
When she was a teenager, she realized that her legs were exceptionally long. She played basketball in high school and upon graduation played college basketball in Russia for one year before being recruited by VCU. She graduated in 1997 and retired in 2000 after playing basketball in Israel, Portugal and Spain.
Pankratova, 41, is now married and works at George Mason High School as an assistant coach for the girls' basketball team, the Mustangs.
"I'm grateful for the opportunity for me to work with them. Because I stopped playing basketball ... so it was great to get back to basketball and I really do enjoy it and it brings all the nice memories back and I just enjoy giving them what I know to help them any way I can," said Pankratova.
In 2002, Pankratova contacted The Guinness Book of World Records to confirm if she had the longest legs for a woman after a news story featured a British woman who claimed to hold that title. Pankratova was notified in 2008 that as a woman, she had the world's longest legs and she went on a media tour throughout the U.S. She was first featured in the 2009 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records and still holds the record.
