Who is Zhang Ziyu?
Zhang was born in 2007 in China, in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province. She grew up in a family strongly connected to basketball: both her parents are former professional players. Her father is 2.13 m tall and her mother 1.98 m. hHr mother even played for the Chinese national team and later became a coach, introducing her daughter to basketball at the age of five.
Shandong, her home region, is known for its relatively tall population. After a standard education, she continued her studies at institutions combining sport and academics, including Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Shandong Experimental Sports High School in Jinan.
How tall is Zhang Ziyu?
At 18 years old, Zhang Ziyu is described as the tallest teenage girl in the world, standing 226cm tall. She is taller than all current NBA players and only three centimetres shorter than Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming.
At age six she was already 160 cm tall. By the end of primary school at 11, she had reached 206 cm. During break time at school she would amuse herself by lifting classmates who annoyed her with one arm. At 14 she exceeded 220 cm. Her growth appears to have stabilised around the age of 17–18. Zhang Ziyu also weighs 130 kg, which she use as a tool to assert herself in basketball.
A promising basketball career
At 226 cm and 130 kg, Zhang is an unstopable force in basketball and is among the rare female players capable of dunking. She first drew public attention at age 14 during the U15 national final, where she scored 42 points, 25 rebounds and 6 blocks.
In 2023 she dominated the U17 category, leading her team to the final with 30 points and 21 rebounds in 26 minutes. One year later she was selected for the Chinese U18 national team for the U18 Asia Cup. Although her team lost in final, she delivered an impressive performance throughout the tournament, averaging 35 points and 12.8 rebounds. She was named MVP.
In 2025, even before playing professionally, she was invited to the Chinese league All-Star Game, scoring 17 points and winning the match. Soon after, she joined the senior national team for a friendly match and scored 18 points in 12 minutes. After that, she got selselection for the 2025 Women’s Asia Cup, where China finished third.
Her next steps are to turn professional and potentially aim for the WNBA.
Facts about Zhang Ziyu
- She is nicknamed “The Great Wall of China”
- As a child, she idelised Lebron James
- At school she practised high jump and long jump.
Videos of Zhang Ziyu