I find it funny how everyone says she SO tall. They make it sound like Nastia's so tall she should have taken up basketball instead of gymnastics
Well it's also the length of her limbs. She has the same wide shoulders and small hips that everyone has but she has longer limbs which make her look taller. I get what people mean when they say Nastia or Svetlana Khorkina aren't THAT tall because they aren't for the general population by their head height but it's also the long limbs too. You see lots of older gymnasts that height that don't have as "tall" of a look because they have shorter limbs and aren't as slim through their whole body. I'm small but not that small (5'1 or so) and I know lots of girls my same height who can raise their arms like three inches above mine, and some who would be below. So for example I can swing through on a lot of bar settings that girls who stand at the same height I can would hit their feet on. If you just see Nastia without knowing she's not actually that tall, she does have the body that creates the illusion of more height. Shawn, on the other hand, could reach that height by head (theoretically) and would probably never look the same just eyeballing her.