His height of 2 m 53 cm and the considerable weight that goes with it handicap the Ukrainian giant’s movements. When walking Leonid tries to lean against something. He refers to his horse, Ksyushka, as “my legs.”
Podolyantsy is a very small village. There is only one street, and the place has no school, or community center, or library, or church, or even a general store.
Leonid Stadnik was a normal boy until doctors diagnosed him with a brain tumor at the age of 12. He underwent treatment and survived, but following the operation his excessive growth began. His parents soon found it impossible to keep up with his growth and the constant need for new clothes and footwear. Already in the senior grades, because of his height, he drew excessive attention to himself.
After leaving school he found work as a veterinarian, which proved to be a source both of great joy and great problems. During his first year he broke two bicycles and had to switch to a horse and cart.
After leaving his job Leonid spent his time looking after the house and tending to his horse, cow, pigs and hens.
Eventually Leonid was compelled to drop his job, but not because of broken bicycles. A person as tall as 253 cm needs shoe size 62, and he simply could not obtain appropriate footwear in his size. Without clothes and footwear Leonid could not go outside and he became increasingly unsociable.
The mass media were the first to highlight the plight of the world’s tallest man, first in Ukraine and then the world. The first to come to the man’s aid were not regional officials, but businessmen from Transcarpathia and Germany, who gave him shoes.
Life has improved for the giant since then. The room where he used to sleep on two bedsteads now contains only one, specially built for him in Zhitomir. Another custom bedstead has been brought in from Germany.
Stadnik knows about the Chinese Bao Xishun, who at 2 m 36 cm tall is the current record holder. But he says he does not aspire to replace him in the Guinness World Records book.
Leonid diplomatically skates over the issue of his personal life. “I am not going to marry as yet. Perhaps I will in time,” he said. “The difficulties I have experienced were so great that I would not want to pass them onto anybody else.”
In 2005, a Kiev firm presented him with a computer and hooked him up to the Internet via satellite. An American doctor from California, James Pember, learned about him and is now e-mailing his advice to the giant. Leonid’s eyesight is poor, and he says it can never be improved. But he manages to keep reading by printing out text files in large fonts.
RIA Novosti, Alexander Savochenko
