Why this woman’s legs are an online sensation

A former Olympic basketball medalist from Russia has a new goal in life - to be named the tallest model in the world.

Standing at 6ft 9in - without shoes on - Ekaterina Lisina has already been officially named the tallest woman in Russia.

After she retired from playing basketball, the leggy beauty launched a career in modelling and believes she is now the world’s tallest model.

Ekaterina said: “The record is held at the moment by Amazon Eve and she is 6ft 8in, which is smaller than me.

“I really want to be in the book of world records as the world’s tallest model. I also think I have a chance to be awarded the world’s longest legs. My legs are around 52.4 inches, which is longer than the current record holder”.

The 29-year-old’s striking height has won her fans from all over the world - many of them men with a penchant for taller ‘Amazonian’ women or women with big feet.

As well as her exceptionally long limbs, Ekaterina has also been officially recognised as having the biggest feet of any woman in Russia with a European size 47, or a UK size 12.

She said: “I do like the attention and I hope after I get the title I am going to get even more attention!”

“I think my long legs can definitely help my modelling career because there aren’t so many models with such long legs.”

Ekaterina’s 52.4-inch pins also propelled her to great success as a professional basketball player.

At the age of 16, Ekaterina had to choose between pursuing her dreams of becoming a model and playing basketball. Already on the path to success with basketball, she chose the sport, putting on hold her catwalk dreams

She explained: “I wanted to be a model since I was 16-years-old but at that time I started my professional basketball career.

“Basically I had to choose between modelling and basketball and of course there was no question because with basketball I had talent.”

Playing for various teams in the Russian Premier League, including CSKA Moscow and Dynamo Kursk, Ekaterina also represented the Russia women’s team at the 2008 Olympics, where she and her team won Olympic bronze.