‘What the heck’: Social media baffled as optical illusion goes viral
The internet has lost its mind after an image of an Italian gymnast went viral with fans all left asking the same question.
Stunning images from throughout the Olympic Games have taken the internet by storm, but this one left social media in disbelief.
An aerial view of Italy’s Sofia Raffaeli in the middle of her rhymthmic gymnastic performance left fans all asking the same question.
As she performed with a ball, Raffaeli jumped as the ball rested on her neck, leaving her head nowhere to be seen.
The image was posted by the official Olympics account to X, formerly Twitter, and quickly went viral with over 24,000 likes and 1.3m views.
With her neck and head completely obscured, fans where left asking “what am I looking at?”
One account replied: “Where is her head and neck?”
A second wrote: “Can you explain what is this?”
A third commented: “What the neck?”
One even asked: “Not fully awake yet, so what the heck am I looking at?!”
A perplexed viewer added: “Bowling ball and a body.”
The optical illusion is easily explainable as nothing more than a perfect angle of the moment with a side on view showing how Raffaeli looked.
The rhythmic gymnastics brings together elements of dance and artistic gymnastics.
The discipline is women-only and uses four different pieces of equipment including the ball, ribbon, hoop and clubs.
The Olympic event is split into two events which are the individual and group all-rounds.
Raffaeli finished top of the qualification round in the individual event with a score of 139.100.
It’s not the first optical illusion to emerge from the Paris Olympics after Chinese duo Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi produced a flawless dive that had fans doing a double take.
The duo executed their dive to perfection in the women’s 10m platform final, making it appear on the broadcast as if there was only one athlete.
- with The Sun
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