At 8 feet 0.85 inches tall, Morteza Mehrzadselakjani is the seventh tallest human in recorded history and the second tallest registered person alive after 8ft 3¼in Turkish farmer Sultan Kosen.

When he made his Paralympic debut in Rio in 2016, the 36-year-old Iranian, who is better known as Mehrzad, then became the tallest athlete to ever compete at an Olympic or Paralympic Games.

In Paris, Mehrzad is aiming for a hattrick of Paralympic golds having been part of the Iranian sitting volleyball teams that won on Mehrzad's debut in 2016 and then secured gold again at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

He's now making headlines for being so tall that he has to sleep on the floor at the Paris Paralympics because no beds will fit his frame but it is not something that fazes his coach Hadi Rezaei who thinks nothing can interfere with Mehrzad's road to success. “It doesn’t matter if he lies on the ground or if he doesn’t have enough to eat. He has the mind to become a champion,"  insists Rezaei.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Mehrzad is so tall that "he can smash a ball that is 6ft 4in off the ground while sitting in a wheelchair." The 36-year-old two-time Paralympic champion dwarfs even the tallest basketball players but he was never fond of the attention he received for his notable height while growing up. 

The shy sitting volleyball player from the Caspian Sea town of Chalus was born with gigantism which is triggered by excessive growth hormone production in the brain's pituitary gland. He then suffered a bike accident when he was 15 fracturing his pelvis and consequently limiting the growth of his right leg which grew six inches shorter than his left.

Requiring the use of a walking stick and sometimes a wheelchair, Mehrzad battled depression with a disability and his towering height sometimes making him "too ashamed to go out" and he spent half a decade rarely leaving his home, instead turning to books and TV shows. 

“Sitting volleyball allowed me to affirm my personality. Today, I read pride in people’s eyes. Some do not know that I am disabled," says Mehrzad. "Before discovering this sport, I was a person known only for my height. Everything has changed for me since then, financially, and socially. It has changed my life so much that I can’t imagine life without it. I can never thank Mr Hadi enough. If he hadn’t believed in me, I wouldn’t be here today.”

The respect is reciprocated by his coach Hadi Rezaei who says “Once, as soon as he went out, everyone looked at him. Now all Iranians see him as a champion. The whole world knows him and respects him.”

Mehrzhad and his Iranian teammates have already got off to a promising Paralympic Games following up a 3-0 win against Ukraine in their opening match by beating Brazil by the same score on Sunday. 

The runaway favourites will then play Germany on Tuesday and though the three times the world player of the year could complete his third consecutive Paralympic triumph, he is modest in the face of success. “I appreciate being called the best, but I’m not,” says Mehrzhad. “Each of us makes the best team in the world.”