World’s second-tallest man forced to sleep on the FLOOR at the Paralympics athletes village in Paris after ‘special bed’ for 8ft3in star failed to arrive

The world’s second tallest man will sleep on the floor in the athletes’ village at the Paris Paralympic Games, it has been announced.

Morteza Mehrzad, 36, from Iran, was born with a rare medical condition called acromegaly, which causes excessive growth. He is 8 feet 1 inch tall, slightly shorter than Turkey’s Sultan Kosen, who is 8 feet 1 inch tall.

Mehrzad is a two-time Paralympic sitting volleyball champion and hopes to win a hat-trick of gold medals in the French capital.

But his task was not helped by his sleeping arrangements in the athletes’ village.

Iran national coach Hadi Rezaei said Olympic Games.com: ‘They have a special bed in Tokyo, but unfortunately not here.

Merhzad is a two-time Paralympic sitting volleyball champion and is going for gold again

“He lies down on the ground.”

Despite Merhzad’s far from ideal preparations, Rezaei stressed that his compatriot’s main focus was on winning the Games.

“He has the main goal in mind,” Rezaei continued.

‘He doesn’t care if he’s lying on the ground or not getting enough to eat.

“He certainly has the will to become champion. Morteza can be considered the best player of our team.

‘If you go back to Morteza, when he was 12 years old, nobody had any consideration for him. But when he became a sitting volleyball player, everyone around the world knew and respected him.

‘I want to give you one sentence: I believe that every person has potential in the world and that we should discover it.’

Athletes taking part in last month’s Olympic Games also complained about the bed situation in Paris, after being forced to sleep on single cardboard beds.

More to come…