Standing well over 7-feet tall, Team China center Zhang Ziyu ranks as not only the tallest athlete in women’s sports, but one of the tallest women in the entire world. For Caitlin Clark, the size difference was a sight to behold.
Clark is well above average among women in terms of height, standing 6-feet tall – more than eight inches above the global average. Yet compared to Ziyu she almost looks like a child.
This photo of Clark standing just a couple of feet away from Ziyu during Team USA’s game against Team China in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup has gone viral:
If it makes fans feel any better, Clark was far from the only WNBA player representing Team USA who Ziyu made look small.
Paige Bueckers, another 6-foot star, was amazed at the size difference between the two of them.
An international star in the making?
Speaking to reporters after the game, which Team USA won handily, Clark admitted that it was “a different type of basketball game” that she’d ever played because she’d never faced someone as tall as Ziyu in her life.
“This was a different type of basketball game that I probably ever played in my entire life. I’ve never played against a woman of that size. She obviously presented some challenges for us, but you gotta give our post players a lot of credit,” Clark said.
Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images.
To be fair, most women’s basketball players who have ever lived have never faced anyone as tall as Zhang Ziyu.
At 19 years of age, Ziyu is currently playing pro basketball in her native China for the Shandong Six Stars. She’ll be eligible for the WNBA Draft next year if any team wants to take a chance on her. It’s way harder to project the success rate of tall players in the WNBA given there have been so few of them.
But WNBA fans are already salivating at the idea of Caitlin Clark having a teammate who she can set up for an easy layup.
