Svetlana Pankratova's long legs helped her land a coaching position of a high school girl's basketball team.

The Guinness Book of Worlds noted that Russian-born Pankratova has the longest female legs in the world, measuring 51.9 inches long. According to a report in the Falls Church News-Press, Pankratova, who lives in Northern Virginia, was offered an assistant coach position for the George Mason High School girls basketball team in Virginia all because of her lengthy gams. The Mustangs, who had won three of the last four state championships in Virginia A-Division 2, made it to the final four again this season, but were eliminated in the semi-finals on Friday in Richmond.

Pankratova was born on April 29, 1971. She grew up in Volgograd in Russia, and was already the tallest kid in kindergarten. Since children were lined up from tallest to shortest, Pankratova was always at the top of the line.

"It wasn't easy because kids do tease you," Pankratova recalled. "They tease whenever something is -- I wouldn't say not normal -- but when something is different. So I would get teased a lot for being tall."

From 1992 to 1995, Pankratova played women's basketball at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, where she still holds the women's record for blocked shots in a season. She graduated from VCU in 1997.

It wasn't until a friend told her out that she might have a chance at a world record of the longest legs. Pankratova then contacted the organization about her unusually long legs. It took six years of documentation and work to achieve the record.

"It's not like I was always on top of it," Pankratova said of the process. "I had other things to do and just kind of let it go."

Guinness granted her the honor in 2008 and sent Pankratova on a media tour through the United States and London.

Pankratova's total height is 1.956 m (6 ft 5 in).

She is married to a Falls Church resident, and college acquaintance, Jack Gosnell.