Olivier Rioux may not be getting any playing time during the Gators run in the NCAA Tournament, but by his sheer size, he’s a presence that’s hard to miss.
At 7-foot-9, Rioux is by far the tallest player in the Tournament this year, and it got some extra notice on Sunday when CBS Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson shared a photo of her standing side-by-side with the Gators’ center.
The post has since gone viral, as it showed the much shorter Wolfson standing next to the gigantic Rioux, along with another photo of Wolfson next to Tacko Fall, who is three inches shorter than the Florida Gator.
“No way either of them can get on a plane,” one person joked on X in reply to Wolfson’s post.
“You’re going to need a boom pole for your microphone!” another person wrote.
Rioux has gotten plenty of attention this year, as he has redshirted his freshman season in Gainesville and is officially the world’s tallest teenager.
Rioux reached the height of 6-foot-1 by the time he was 8 years old and 6-foot-11 when he was in sixth grade, according to For The Win.
And after the Gators won the SEC tournament earlier this month, he went viral as he was seen cutting down the net without even having to get up on a ladder to do so.
He easily chopped a piece of the net off as Florida cheerleaders and fans reacted in the background.
Rioux will likely be more of a factor on the court next season after redshirting this year — a choice he made over getting garbage time minutes as a non-scholarship athlete.
“It’s been a process,” Rioux told the Associated Press. “I feel good about it. I feel like I’ve been doing a tremendous job in terms of lifting. Obviously, practicing is a bit different. You’re not playing as much as you want to, but you still got to show up and practice as much as they want me to.”
