Buzz
From the largest to the smallest, the oldest to the tallest, we have only recently begun to reliably track the extremes of what humans can accomplish, endure, or become. Some of these records are awe-inspiring, others raise concerns, and some are simply bizarre.
Here are ten current titleholders, whose achievements are often compared to the all-time records of those no longer living.
10. The Oldest
The longest confirmed human lifespan belongs to Jeanne Calment from France, born on February 21, 1875. She lived to be 122 years and 164 days old, passing away in August 1997. Her later years were marked by profound loss, as she lived without heirs after her daughter died in 1934 from a lung infection and her grandson was killed in a car accident in 1963.
Calment was the epitome of an exclusive evolutionary group known as supercentenarians, individuals who live to the remarkable age of 110 or beyond. Fewer than 2,000 such people have been documented. These individuals often capture public attention both in life and death; for instance, the passing of 117-year-old Emma Morano in April 2017 made headlines as she was the last living person born in the 19th century.
At present, the oldest person alive is Kane Tanaka, a 118-year-old woman from Japan. Remarkably, she has already surpassed her fellow countryman Jiroemon Kimura, who lived to 116 years and 54 days, setting the record for the longest-living man. One fascinating detail of Tanaka’s life seems mathematically improbable: she was married to her husband Hideo for 71 years, but he passed away... a staggering 28 years ago.
Fifteen years ago, at the age of 103, Tanaka triumphed over colorectal cancer, because why not. In May, she chose to cancel her plans to take part in the Olympic torch relay across Japan, not due to age, but out of consideration for the health of other residents in her nursing home. Tanaka is currently the third oldest person ever recorded, and if she lives until late June 2025, she will break the longevity record.
9. The Heaviest
You guessed it: Of course, it's an American. U-S-A! U-S-A!
The heaviest person ever recorded was Jon Brower Minnoch from Seattle, Washington, who once tipped the scales at an astonishing 1,400 pounds. Minnoch had always been, let’s say, ‘on the larger side.’ By the age of 12, he was nearing 300 pounds. A decade later, he had reached 500 pounds. Extreme obesity like this is rarely caused by diet alone: Minnoch had generalized edema, a condition where excess extracellular fluid accumulates in the body. Up to half of his weight came from retained fluids.
At 36, Minnoch married a woman who weighed just 110 pounds, setting the record for the largest weight difference between a married couple—though that really shouldn’t be a record to begin with. Minnoch passed away in 1983 at the age of 41.
The second heaviest person ever recorded, Khalid bin Mohsen Shaari from Saudi Arabia, has a happier story, having since shed his heavyweight title. In fact, he holds another record: the largest weight loss in history. Over four years, Shaari lost almost 1,200 pounds and now weighs a healthy 150 pounds.
Following in Shaari’s footsteps, Juan Pedro Franco from Mexico achieved his own remarkable transformation. Once tipping the scales at 1,312 pounds, Franco lost nearly 900 pounds, relinquishing his throne of titanium strength. His dramatic weight loss couldn’t have come at a better time, as he recently battled COVID-19.
As of now, the title of ‘world’s heaviest person’ remains vacant, though four others who weighed over 1,000 pounds are still alive—three of whom are, unsurprisingly, Americans.
8. The Tallest
Nine feet tall? Well, nearly. While there are many stories of individuals surpassing that impressive height, the tallest person ever reliably recorded was Robert Wadlow from the United States, who measured a staggering 8 feet, 11.1 inches. Born in 1918, Wadlow’s extraordinary height was evident from an early age. At just 5 years old, he stood an incredible 5 feet, 4 inches; by age 8, he was already approaching 6 feet.
Sadly, Wadlow’s immense stature was not natural or sustainable. His exceptional height was the result of pituitary gland hyperplasia, a condition that causes excessive production of growth hormone. No effective treatment was available in the 1930s. Wadlow passed away at the young age of 22 from an infection caused by a leg brace that had been worn to support his enormous height.
Currently, the tallest living person is 38-year-old Sultan Kösen from Turkey, who stands at 8 feet, 2.8 inches. Kösen earned the title in 2009, becoming the first person in over two decades to officially surpass 8 feet in height. In addition to his towering height, Kösen has the longest hands of any living person (11.22 inches) and the second-longest feet (14 inches).
Kösen’s exceptional height is due to a pituitary tumor. Fortunately, in 2010 he underwent radiation treatment that successfully stopped his uncontrolled growth. Here he is, making everyday objects look unusually small in comparison to his size.
Interestingly, as mentioned in the following entry, Kösen once met his record-holding counterpart…
7. The Shortest
In November 2014, Sultan Kösen, the world’s tallest living man from Turkey, had the rare opportunity to meet the shortest living man—and, in fact, the shortest person in recorded history. The contrast was… well, to put it mildly, a bit unsettling.
Born in Nepal in 1939, Chandra Bahadur Dangi never really grew taller—he simply got older. Due to the remote location of his village, Reemkholi, about 250 miles from Kathmandu, Dangi’s notably small stature wasn’t officially acknowledged until 2012.
A primordial dwarf, which sounds intriguing but probably isn’t as glamorous in real life, Dangi was exceptionally small from birth. His maximum height was an astonishing 1 foot, 9½ inches, just half an inch shorter than the previous record-holder. Sadly, his reign as the shortest man alive was brief—Dangi passed away in 2015 at the age of 75.
Dangi’s passing handed the title of shortest man to Junrey Balawing from the Philippines… until the 23.6-inch man passed away last year. The current titleholder is Lin Yü-chih from Taiwan, who, at 2 feet, 2.6 inches, stands taller than his predecessors.
However, Lin Yü-chih is not the shortest person alive. That distinction belongs to Jyoti Amge, a 27-year-old woman from India. Standing at just 2 feet, 0.7 inches, Amge is the third shortest woman in recorded history. In 2014, she appeared in the refreshingly non-politically-correct show “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” playing the character Ma Petite – though, honestly, it was a very brief role.
6. The Fastest
This might be the one answer that’s easy to guess: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt holds the record for the fastest sprint ever recorded.
Or rather, sprints—plural: Bolt holds the records for both the 100 meters (9.58 seconds) and 200 meters (19.19 seconds). His top speed reached 27.8 miles per hour—faster than most dogs (though not Greyhounds, who can hit 45mph).
Bolt’s unparalleled speed is made even more remarkable by its endurance. In a sport where peak performances typically signal brief careers, Bolt is still considered the fastest person on Earth, even though he set his records 12 years ago and retired in 2017. This belief is based on two main factors. First, Bolt is the only sprinter to secure 100-meter and 200-meter golds at three consecutive Olympic Games, beginning in 2008.
Secondly, no current sprinter is coming close to Bolt’s times. Trayvon Bromell, the top contender entering the latest Olympic Games, has a personal best of 9.77 seconds—nearly two-tenths of a second slower than Bolt’s pace, a massive gap in a sport where even the smallest difference can mean the world. Ultimately, Italy’s Lamont Jacobs clinched gold with a time of 9.8 seconds. If Bolt ever returns to top form, he could easily reclaim his crown—even at 34.
5. The Smartest (Highest IQ)
When it comes to raw intellect, IQ remains the most reliable—if imperfect—metric of genius. Although he never formally tested, experts estimate that American William Sidis had an IQ between 250 and 300, an astounding 50-100 points higher than Albert Einstein. Sidis was already reading newspapers before he turned 2, and by age 6, he could speak multiple languages including Latin, French, German, Russian, Hebrew, Turkish, Armenian, and of course, English. He enrolled at Harvard at the age of 11.
However, Sidis’ adult life was far from as extraordinary. Overwhelmed by the attention and high expectations tied to his early genius, he withdrew from the public eye, becoming a reclusive writer. In fact, most of his works were published under pseudonyms. Sidis passed away from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 46.
So who holds the title of the smartest now? Well, it’s a bit tricky. Back in the 1980s, American Marilyn vos Savant achieved an astounding IQ of 228, so remarkable that Guinness actually removed the ‘Highest IQ’ category shortly afterward. The current top-ranking individual on the World Genius Directory is chess player Konstantinos Ntalachanis, who has scored as high as 230 on IQ tests.
4. The Hairiest
Larry Gomez from Mexico has a rare genetic condition called Congenital Generalized Hypertrichosis, which affects fewer than 100 people worldwide. As a result, he has hair covering an astonishing 98% of his body. In fact, fewer than 10 people in the world have hair on at least 95% of their bodies, and Larry is undoubtedly one of the wooliest.
His nickname? Naturally, it’s “Wolf Man.” But there’s more to this story—Larry’s not alone in his hairiness. His family holds the Guinness World Record for the Hairiest Large Family. This shouldn’t be a thing, but here we are. Seen here with Gabriel “Danny” Ramos Gomez, Luisa Lilia De Lira Aceves, and Jesus Manuel Fajardo Aceves, Larry and his relatives form a wolfpack of 19 people across five generations, all with Hypertrichosis. Larry and Danny perform in the Mexican National Circus, probably to help with shampoo costs.
Hypertrichosis also has a rarer condition within it, called Ambras Syndrome, which has only about 50 confirmed cases since the Middle Ages. One person affected by this is Supatra Susuphan from Thailand. By the time she was 11, she had already earned the title of the world’s hairiest girl. Her nicknames have included Wolf Girl, Monkey Face, and Chewbacca, though perhaps the latter is one of the least flattering Star Wars characters to be compared to—besides maybe Jabba the Hutt.
But don’t worry, this story ends on a positive note: In 2018, Susuphan got married. As of the latest update, they were still living their hair-raising happily ever after.
3. The Drunkest
There’s a particular group of people – alcoholics – who think that boasting about how many drinks they’ve consumed is somehow impressive. Listening to these stories about their drinking prowess is akin to listening to Ron Jeremy brag about his sexual escapades: amateurs.
That said, there was this one guy who really took it to a whole new level. After being in a car crash that caused him serious injuries, an unnamed man in Poland was found with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 1.480%. For context, the legal BAC limit for driving in places like the US, Canada, and the UK is 0.08%. In other countries like the EU and Australia, anything over 0.05% is considered too drunk to drive.
So, our Polish friend’s BAC was, depending on where you are, somewhere between 20 and 30 times the legal limit for intoxication. That’s the highest BAC ever documented. To achieve that level, according to this Blood Alcohol Content Calculator, a 150-pound man would need to drink around NINETY ounces of vodka.
Incredibly, doctors reported that the man survived his monumental drinking binge, but ultimately succumbed to the injuries from the car crash, thanks to the unforgiving pavement.
Due to confidentiality in medical records, we can’t know the identity of the current record-holder for BAC. However, the next closest candidates include a South African sheep thief (yes, you read that right) who had a BAC of 1.41% back in 2010, and a 24-year-old American woman whose BAC of 1.33% is the highest ever recorded for a female. Despite the extreme intoxication, she was reportedly 'alert and capable.' Somehow, I’m impressed.
2. The Wettest
The newest entry on this list belongs to Pablo Fernandez from Spain, who set the record for the longest distance swum in a single attempt from July 19-20, 2021. Starting at 10am, Fernandez swam an astonishing 250km (155.3 miles) over the course of 26 hours and 36 minutes.
However, Fernandez wasn’t entirely on his own: he benefited from a particularly favorable current. According to Robert Strauss, the chief observer for the event, “The currents were so fast. We calculated that Pablo was swimming 100 meters in about 40 seconds for 24 hours. He was literally flying.” For comparison, Olympic male sprint swimmers typically take 46 or 47 seconds to cover the same 100 meters.
But Fernandez isn’t just a one-hit wonder in the water – he holds several records for endurance swimming. In 2019, he became the fastest to swim 5km while wearing leg irons. It’s an oddly specific record, but hey, who’s judging? In 2020, he also broke the record for swimming in place, treading water for 25 hours straight.
On the women’s side of things, the record-holder for an unassisted open-water swim is Chloe McCardel from Australia. In 2014, McCardel swam an incredible 77.3 miles in the Atlantic Ocean over approximately 41 hours.
While McCardel’s feat is awe-inspiring, it’s worth noting she was 29 at the time—at the peak of her physical abilities. Equally impressive, though, was Diana Nyad’s 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida in 2013. Although Nyad was 64 years old, and the swim was classified as “assisted” due to the protective gear she used against jellyfish stings, it remains a monumental achievement.
1. The Wokest
Just kidding—this entry isn’t about political correctness or social awareness. It’s about staying physically awake, as in, not asleep. While it’s likely that someone (maybe a chronic insomniac, a tortured prisoner of war, or anyone who’s coached the New York Jets) has gone without sleep for long stretches, the official record for consecutive wakefulness belongs to American Randy Gardner.
For a high school science experiment, Randy Gardner, then 17, decided to see how long he could go without sleep. He managed an astounding 264 hours—just over 11 days—beating the previous record by four hours. Gardner and his friend, Bruce McAllister, had set their sights on surpassing the 260-hour mark, which was held by Hawaiian disc jockey Tom Rounds. Rounds had achieved the record while sitting in a department store display window, which made the feat all the more famous.
Gardner’s record-breaking attempt began simply enough, with just him and McAllister. However, as Gardner's ability to stay awake became more impressive, the two were joined by sleep expert Dr. William Dement and U.S. Navy medic John Ross, adding more observation to the experiment.
By the third day, Gardner’s coordination started to suffer, and his emotions became erratic. After five days, he began experiencing vivid hallucinations. When he finally ended his record-breaking stint, instead of collapsing into bed, he went straight to a press conference. Following the media frenzy, Gardner underwent an electroencephalogram to check his brainwaves before finally getting a well-deserved 14 hours of sleep. Remarkably, Gardner is still alive today.
