Meet the world’s tallest teen, Olivier Rioux, a budding hoops prospect

Olivier Rioux might be the next big thing in basketball.

Standing at 7-foot-6, Rioux is a sophomore at IMG Academy in Florida. He was recognized as the world’s tallest teen by Guinness last year.

Rioux is going viral this week because he posed for a photo with Chuck Swirsky, the radio play-by-play voice of the Chicago Bulls. Swirsky is 5-9 — the height of the average American male — and Rioux towers over him.

“With the whole Rioux family being tall, Olivier’s childhood home was updated to accommodate everyone’s stature. Tabletops, and ceilings are all higher than average. The only thing that remains the same is the doorframes, which have seen their fair share of collisions with the top of Olivier’s head,” Guinness wrote when presenting him with the record. 

“As a child, Olivier spent hours looking through his Guinness World Records books, studying the tallest people, and comparing himself to every record holder. After failing to find someone taller than him in the 2015 and 2016 editions of the books, Olivier was inspired to achieve the title himself and recalls being “emotionally shocked and relieved that [he] finally got it!” 

Rioux is a native of Montreal, Canada. Michael Meeks, a coach who works for Canada Basketball, spoke about Rioux’s improvement on the court this past summer.

“When you see Olivier, every 3-6 months he’s doing things quicker, faster, stronger, more balanced, he’s got more agility, his game is getting better, his understanding of how to impact the game is getting better,” Meeks said. “This is important, because usually taller players are a little bit slower [to develop], and he’s moving at the right rate in terms of a super tall player.”