Fernando Romay and height bullying at school: "We solved it by arguing or hitting each other."

Fernando Romay is a living legend of Spanish basketball. Standing at 213 meters tall, he played 174 caps for the national team and won a silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics . He also enjoyed a distinguished career with Real Madrid and even played his final season with CB Zaragoza.

While her extraordinary height was an asset to her basketball career, it caused her many problems in her childhood and adolescence, as she discussed this Friday in an interview on the Antena 3 program 'Y ahora Sonsoles'. It's worth noting that at age 10, she was already 1.85 meters tall.

This is how he began his story to Sonsoles Ónega: "At school, I never thought I'd go so far. We tall guys have never been known for our innate ability. At school, I took independent exams. I never passed gymnastics because they made me jump the inside vault. I hit like a piano. It was impossible. In basketball, they told me they were going to take advantage of me. They saw the potential I had, not the downside. That's when I gave it my all."

Due to his distinctive physique, Fernando Romay suffered what is now known as bullying. "It was a time when bullying didn't go beyond the classroom. We kids have always been cruel to anyone who's different, both then and now. What happens now is that there are cell phones and you're the big-headed one... They called me everything: big-headed, big-footed... Every year I was reconciled. But since I didn't leave the classroom, we argued or fought. It's not easy because you're the one who puts up with it. But I had a family that gave me a lot of love, and that's how I made up for it. I forgot about what was outside because I had the refuge of my home, which was all love," he asserted.

The former Galician athlete continued to offer more details and called for improvements in the lives of taller people: "They put me on a small desk as punishment, and my legs wouldn't fit. That happened to me several times in my life. I got my driver's license in a Seat 133. Being that tall is a problem. Like on airlines. If you want to sit in an emergency row to have more space, you have to pay more. Why aren't there aids for tall people? Clothing is also more expensive. It's tall-phobia."