Page "Väinö Myllyrinne" Paragraph 1

Myllyrinne is considered the tallest soldier ever, having served in the Finnish Defence Forces.

He was also voted 12th greatest Finn in the TV show Suuret suomalaiset, largely due to a tongue-in-cheek Internet campaign criticising the idea of the show.

The advocates of the campaign thought that because one cannot pick just one person to be the Greatest Finn for their accomplishments, Väinö Myllyrinne would actually be the " biggest Finn " because of his height ( in Finnish, the word suuri means both " big " and " great ").

In 1962, just a year before his death, he was measured by doctors at 8 ft 1 inches ( 2. 47 m ).

He had a 15. 7 inch hand span, the greatest known.