Standing at 2.26 meters tall, 14-year-old Chinese girl dubbed 'next Yao Ming'

A video of a 2.26-meter-tall girl dominating China's National U15 Women's Basketball Championship final has gone viral on the internet, reminding many in China of basketball legend Yao Ming.

The girl in the video, Zhang Ziyu, who is significantly taller than everyone else on the court, didn't really face any real challenges in the tournament, where she pocketed 42 points, 25 rebounds and six blocks in the final to help her Shandong team claim the title.

Zhang was born in May 2007 in east China's Shandong Province, to parents who were former professional basketball athletes. Zhang's father is 2.13 meters tall while her mother Yu Ying, who stands over 1.9 meters tall, earned several national team call-ups.

By the time she entered elementary school, Zhang was already 1.6 meters tall. She grew 10 centimeters every year until she stood at 2.11 meters when she graduated from elementary school, standing out among her classmates.

In 2019, Zhang enrolled at Tsinghua University Middle School, famous for its basketball team, as a student athlete, with many hoping that she can one day anchor China's women's basketball team and write her own story as the "next Yao Ming."

(CGTN)