Maria Stepanova

Maria Alexandrovna Stepanova (; born 23 February 1979) is a Russian professional and Olympic basketball player. In the United States, she played for the Phoenix Mercury in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
At a height of 203 cm, she has been the third-tallest player in the league (along with Liz Cambage, Brittney Griner, Zheng Haixia, and Lindsay Taylor). The other players such as Margo Dydek, at 7 ft 2 in (218 cm), and Han Xu, at 6 ft 9 in (206 cm), are taller than her. Heidi Gillingham, at 6 ft 10 in (208 cm), and Allyssa DeHaan, also at 6 ft 9 in, never played in the WNBA. She wears size 15 (US) / 48 (EU) shoes. Though in the Russian national team, she has been overtaken by Ekaterina Lisina in being the tallest member.
Stepanova was born in the village of Shpakovskoye (now the town of Mikhaylovsk, in Stavropol Krai of the former Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union, and grew up in Tosno, Leningrad Oblast.