Some of our most iconic records were broken in 2022, including the world’s oldest person living, shortest man living, longest fingernails ever, and many more.
Here are five Officially Amazing humans who joined the Guinness World Records family this year (scroll to the end to watch a video of all the rest!).
Oldest person living
In April, Sister André (France, b. 11 February 1904 as Lucile Randon) was announced as the oldest person living. She is aged 118 years 322 days old as of 30 December 2022.
Sister André was awarded the record after the previous holder, Kane Tanaka, sadly passed away aged 119 years 107 days.
This wasn’t Sister André’s first Guinness World Records title though - she was already the oldest nun living, and in 2021 she became the world’s oldest COVID-19 survivor. After having already lived through the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, Sister André managed to shake off the coronavirus without suffering any major symptoms.
Sister André is the fourth-oldest verified person of all time. Third-placed Sarah Knauss (USA, 1880-1999) and second-placed Kane Tanaka (Japan, 1903-2022) both lived to be 119. The oldest person ever was 122-year-old Jeanne Calment (France, 1875-1997).
We also announced the current oldest man living earlier this year: 113-year-old Juan Vicente Pérez (Venezuela).
Longest fingernails ever
In August, Diana Armstrong from Minnesota, USA, broke the record for the longest fingernails on a pair of hands ever (female), with a combined length of 1,306.58 cm (42 ft 10.4 in).
Diana last cut her nails in 1997. She vowed never to cut them again after her 16-year-old daughter, Latisha, passed away in her sleep.
"She was the only one who did my nails. She polished them and filed them for me," Diana revealed. "She did my nails that night before. We was up all night, so I just couldn't cut my nails off after that."
Diana says she is restricted in what she can do with her hands; she often uses her feet to pick up things on the floor or to open the refrigerator. Some things – like driving a car - she has had to give up completely.
"I think my nails are pretty. To somebody else, they might not be, but to me, they is."
Largest feet (female)
Moving from fingernails onto feet, Tanya Herbert (USA) was awarded the record for the world’s largest feet on a living person (female) in November. Her right foot measures 33.1 cm (13.03 in) and her left foot measures 32.5 cm (12.79 in).
Tanya’s shoe size is a US women’s size 18 or a US men’s size 16 - 17, depending on the brand.
"5% of men that follow me [online] are the ones who send strange and interesting comments into my inbox asking if I would sell them pictures of my feet."
Tanya is 6 ft 9 in tall; only three inches shorter than the tallest woman living, Rumeysa Gelgi (Türkiye), who also broke three records in 2022.
Shortest man living
In December, a new shortest man living was crowned.
20-year-old Afshin Esmaeil Ghaderzadeh (Iran, b. 13 July 2002) was measured to be 65.24 cm (2 ft 1.6 in), making him the fourth-shortest man ever verified by Guinness World Records.
He was born with a body weight of 700 g (1.5 lb) and now weighs almost 6.5 kg (14.3 lb).
Afshin was discovered in a remote village located in northern Iran. He can speak both Kurdish and Persian, using the Farsi dialect.
He is a very kind and sociable young man, thus he is very popular with the locals. Both his parents and his community call him by the name ‘Mohamad’.
Although Afshin can walk unassisted, he sometimes prefers to be carried. “I know who the tallest man living in the world is. I might fit in the palms of his hands,” he said.
Afshin was of course referring to Sultan Kösen, who also had something to celebrate in December – his 40th birthday!
Longest locs
Technically this record wasn’t broken in 2022, it was actually set way back in 2009. However, earlier this year, Asha Mandela’s (USA) hair was found to have grown to a length of 16.9 m (55 ft 7 in). That’s longer than a bus!
"I don’t like the term dreadlocks because I don’t think there’s anything dread about my locs," Asha explained.
Asha prefers to refer to her record-breaking barnet as her “cobra” or “royal crown.”
She began growing it over 40 years ago, when she moved from the island of Trinidad and Tobago to New York, USA.
"I started having dreams of what others may refer to as visions, where the huge cobra would appear before me and start talking to me; letting me know that I’m the chosen one," she revealed.
"When I’m ready to go into my sleep chamber with my cobra baby, I would have them tied up in a little sack and we cuddle and talk to each other."
Asha’s long locs weigh 19 kg (42 lb) altogether, which is three times heavier than an actual cobra.
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