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Olympic swimmer’s trunks leave viewers in disbelief over unfortunate optical illusion

Home> News

Updated 09:07 30 Jul 2024 GMT+1Published 16:43 29 Jul 2024 GMT+1

Olympic swimmer’s trunks leave viewers in disbelief over unfortunate optical illusion

Arno Kamminga has gone viral over his choice of swimming attire at the Paris Olympics

Rhiannon Ingle

Rhiannon Ingle

Featured Image Credit: Andre Weening/BSR Agency/Henk Jan Dijks/Marcel ter Bals/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images

Topics: Olympics, Sport, News

Rhiannon Ingle
Rhiannon Ingle

Rhiannon Ingle is a Senior Journalist at Tyla, specialising in TV, film, travel, and culture. A graduate of the University of Manchester with a degree in English Literature, she honed her editorial skills as the Lifestyle Editor of The Mancunian, the UK’s largest student newspaper. With a keen eye for storytelling, Rhiannon brings fresh perspectives to her writing, blending critical insight with an engaging style. Her work captures the intersection of entertainment and real-world experiences.

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We're less than a handful of days into this year's Olympics and the prestigious sporting event has already proven to be quite eventful.

From shock over the 'naked blue man' and an Olympics commentator being fired for his sexist comments all the way through to an athlete removing a body part just so he could compete - it's clear that the buzz isn't dying down anytime soon.

And the latest Olympics antics sees one Dutch swimmer's trunks leaving viewers in total disbelief at the unfortunate optical illusion.

Dutch swimmer, Arno Kamminga, made waves on social media due to his optical illusion swimming trunks. (Henk Jan Dijks/Marcel ter Bals/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images)
Dutch swimmer, Arno Kamminga, made waves on social media due to his optical illusion swimming trunks. (Henk Jan Dijks/Marcel ter Bals/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images)

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It all started when 28-year-old Arno Kamminga graced the pool donning a pair of trunks which saw the thigh portion perfectly match his skin colour before the 100m breaststroke final in Paris.

The shorts were mostly white with the orange and grey triangles dotted across them to form a spiral pattern.

Due to the colour choice of the shorts and the dotted pattern, it almost appears as if Kamminga was wearing some pretty tight speedos.

Arno Kamminga looked like he was wearing some very small trunks (BBC)
Arno Kamminga looked like he was wearing some very small trunks (BBC)

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Viewers were in hysterics (BBC)
Viewers were in hysterics (BBC)

Viewers have since rushed to social media to share their reactions to the trunks with one X user writing: "IN PUBLIC? IS THIS LEGAL?"

"Arno Kamminga you are still so important to me," praised a second, while a third chimed in: "I have a coupla questions..."

Kamminga's Dutch team-mate, Tessa Giele, could also be seen wearing the same pattern for her swimsuit as she lined up for the semi finals of the women's 100m butterfly.

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The shorts in question. (Andre Weening/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
The shorts in question. (Andre Weening/BSR Agency/Getty Images)

Unfortunately for Kamminga, he was unable to secure a gold medal and finished in sixth place as Nicolo Martinenghi, Adam Peaty and Nic Fink topped the leaderboard.

He finished with a time of 59.32 with Fink and Peaty scoring 59.05 while Martinenghi was 0.02 seconds ahead of the pair.

Talking of swimmers, Australian swimmer, Kyle Chalmers, wowed the world when he smashed the world record while representing the Aussie men's 4x100m freestyle relay team.

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The 26-year-old swam his leg of the race in an incredible 46.59 seconds - a whole 0.21 quicker than previous record holder, Pan Zhanle, whose time was set at 46.80 seconds earlier this year.

However, Chalmers' time will not count officially because it was recorded during a relay event.

The official World Aquatics rules state that it is only the swimmer in the lead leg who is eligible for an official time and, given that Chalmers was the fourth in the team to hit the water, his record-breaking time will not be counted.

The most bizarre, discontinued Olympic sports

Painting

Back in the day, the Olympics dished out medals for art too, with events including painting and sculpture, as well as music, architecture and even literature.

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Making its debut all the way back at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm and continuing until the 1948 London games, juries awarded competitors a total of 151 medals for artistic projects inspired by sport.

Tug of War

Bet you didn't think this playground classic was once part of the Olympics, did you?

Well, it turns out not only was the sport popular, but it stirred up a lot of drama too - with accusations of foul play flying around at the 1908 Olympics in London, with Team USA accusing Team GB of cheating due to their 'illegal' heavy footwear.

A mainstay for around five Olympic games from 1900 to 1920, Tug of War enthusiasts have even campaigned for organisers to reintroduce the retired sport back into the Games.

Hot Air Balloon Racing

Launching at the 1900 Olympics, hot air balloon drivers would compete in races scoring how far they could travel, altitude reached, ability to land within the correct coordinates and - to top it all off - who got the best photo from the balloon.

The sport ended up being canned after a ban on motorised sports was brought in.

Live Pigeon Shooting

Also making its debut at the 1900 Olympics, the event was pretty self explanatory - a load of pigeons were released into the air as the competitor tried to shoot as many as possible. Grim.

The event only appeared at the Games once, and all in all, it's estimated that Olympic hopefuls killed around 300 pigeons.

Pistol Duelling

It doesn't take much guessing as to why this event was scrapped, but back in 1906, people clearly didn't bat an eyelid at competitors waving pistols around and shooting at each other.

It began with competitors shooting at dummies, but two years later organisers decided to shake things up and have them shoot at each other with wax bullets. Ouch.

1908 would be the last time the sport was included in the Olympics, so I'm guessing they quickly realised it was a bad idea - wax bullets or not.

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