Olympic fans were shocked when Chinese swimmer Tang Qianting entered the pool on Monday with a noticeably ‘sprained’ waist.
Qianting’s ‘impossible’ form surprised her, but it was nothing more than a bizarre optical illusion created on camera by her suit and the arena.
The sides of her two-tone, blue-and-blue Speedo swimsuit matched the background wall almost perfectly.
IMPOSSIBLY THIN: Olympic fans were shocked when Chinese swimmer Tang Qianting entered the pool arena on Monday with an incredibly ‘pinched’ waist
It created an optical illusion that made her waist appear smaller, but it looked like she was only a few inches wide.
This type of fashion design was a trend that started in the 1960s, using geometric patterns and contrasting, bright colors to make the wearer appear smaller.
Qianting, the reigning world champion in the 100m breaststroke, won silver on Monday with a time of 1:05.54, but all eyes were on her waistline.
In a video posted to TikTok, Qianting stepped to the edge of the pool, the edges of her two-tone swimsuit matching the blue background perfectly.
The video, which has been viewed more than 7.1 million times, was captioned ‘she’s snatched’ as excited viewers on social media gawked at the swimmer’s curves.
People joked in the comments, calling the video “the Olympics,” referring to the diabetes medication that can also be used to lose weight. Another wrote, “Okay Kim Kardashian Met Gala 2024!!!”
The swimsuit created the optical illusion through the use of bright, contrasting colors strategically designed along the waistline.
It is believed that this trend was inspired by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, whose early 20th century paintings featured similar geometric shapes.
He is now known as the ‘father of abstraction’ and his artistic designs were introduced to the fashion world by Yves Saint-Laurent in 1965.
Olympic swimmer Tang Qianting (pictured) shocked fans with her teal swimsuit that appeared to give her a ‘nipped in’ waist
The swimsuit created an optical illusion that made viewers see an image other than reality by using geometric patterns and vibrant, contrasting colors
This color blocking technique uses a geometric pattern, usually in the shape of an hourglass. It makes the person’s silhouette appear to change, highlighting a certain area—in Qianting’s case, the waist—so your eyes block the rest of the face.
This is because the brain doesn’t look at an image as a whole, but instead uses shortcuts and skips certain aspects so you can process the information faster.
In 2011, researchers at the University of Glasgow discovered that when something is unclear to the naked eye, the brain predicts what it will see and fills in the missing information.
‘Effectively, our brains are building an incredibly complex jigsaw puzzle using whatever pieces they can find,’ explained researcher Fraser Smith.
‘These are determined by the context in which we see them, our memories and our other senses.’
“Sometimes the brain’s guesses are so convincing that we see visual illusions,” adds Smith’s co-author Lars Muckli of the university’s Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology.
“The brain’s main function is to minimize surprises – that’s what it evolved to do.”