{"id":201049,"date":"2026-03-22T04:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/201049\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T04:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:21:16","slug":"who-is-floridas-olivier-rioux-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-7-foot-9-redshirt-freshman-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/201049\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Florida’s Olivier Rioux? Everything you need to know about the 7-foot-9 redshirt freshman center"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a sport full of tall players, Rioux is an anomaly. The 20-year-old stands at 7-foot-9 \u2014 the tallest college basketball player on record. As the Florida Gators make their way through the NCAA tournament<\/a>, Rioux has been turning heads as he takes the national stage.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s everything you need to know about the redshirt freshman:<\/p>\n

From world\u2019s tallest teenager to NCAA\u2019s tallest basketball player<\/p>\n

Rioux grew up in Terrebonne, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, and has always been very, very tall. According to his bio on the Florida website, Rioux was 6-foot-1 when he was 8 years old, and passed the 7-foot mark just before entering seventh grade.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

When he was 16, Rioux, measuring just over 7-5, earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records<\/a> as the world\u2019s tallest teenager. He then grew four more inches over the next two years, and was listed at his current 7-9 ahead of the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n

Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season<\/a><\/p>\n

The rest of the Rioux family is tall as well. His father is 6-foot-8, his mother (a former volleyball player) is 6-foot-1, and his older brother (who also played basketball) is 6-foot-9. Rioux told Yahoo Sports at the Final Four last year<\/a> that his family often drew attention when they went out together.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody would come up to my dad and say, \u2018Oh my God, how tall are you? Oh, even your child is tall?\u2019\u201d Rioux said, saying that his father was always \u201crespectful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Rioux then committed to Florida after graduating high school in 2024.<\/p>\n

Limited minutes as a redshirt freshman<\/p>\n

Per the Gators\u2019 website, Rioux took a \u201cdevelopmental redshirt season\u201d last year. As a result, he participated in Florida\u2019s national championship-winning season<\/a> as part of the scout team, but did not play in any games.<\/p>\n

This season, as a redshirt freshman, Rioux has played limited minutes, stepping in for 13 minutes across 10 games in the 2025-26 season. He scored five points in that span \u2014 including his first dunk<\/a> against Saint Francis in December.<\/p>\n

During the postseason, Rioux played two minutes in the Gators\u2019 first-round blowout<\/a> over No. 16-seed Prairie View A&M, dropping another dunk late in the 59-point win.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if Rioux will get more minutes next season. Florida\u2019s starting center, Rueben Chinyelu, is a junior this year. The second center in the depth chart, Micah Handlogten, is a senior this year.<\/p>\n

Rioux has been turning heads<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a surprise that someone as tall as Rioux would draw attention, even in the basketball world. Rioux has been mobbed for pictures and autographs over the past year, becoming one of the most recognizable players on Florida\u2019s team despite not playing many minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot sometimes,\u201d Rioux said of the attention, in last year\u2019s interview with Yahoo Sports<\/a>. \u201cSometimes you\u2019ve got to learn to say no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Still, Rioux can\u2019t help but attract that attention. During Florida\u2019s win over Prairie View, an interaction between the redshirt freshman and Panthers forward Hassane Diallo \u2014 who is 6-8 \u2014 went viral, as Diallo marveled at Rioux\u2019s height.<\/p>\n

During the break between the first and second rounds of the 2026 NCAA tournament, Rioux continued his trend of being the Gators\u2019 most visible player, joining a Florida fan who went viral for being exceptionally buff for a photo.<\/p>\n

As the 2026 NCAA tournament continues, it\u2019s unlikely that Rioux will play more than a couple of minutes per game, but he\u2019ll certainly keep drawing plenty of attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a sport full of tall players, Rioux is an anomaly. The 20-year-old stands at 7-foot-9 \u2014 the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,2530,30,29,92841,48750,92840,25404,34892],"class_list":["post-201049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hassane-diallo","tag-redshirt-freshman","tag-rioux","tag-rueben-chinyelu","tag-worlds-tallest-teenager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}