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| - In early December 2024, an X-ray allegedly showing a gymnast performing an extreme backbending maneuver resurfaced on
"I know it's silly, but I see a snake with a human skull," one Reddit user commented, while another asked, "This might be a silly question, but how come when gymnasts do these things they are ok .. but when a normal person does this, they get a package of injuries if not even paralyzes [sic]?"
Google reverse image search results showed the image had spread hundreds of times on social media platforms, including Threads, Imgur, Reddit, 9GAG, X, and Facebook. A TinEye reverse image search indicated the image had spread online at least since March 2016.
The image was authentic. However, because it showed a contortionist, an acrobat able to twist the body into unusual postures, rather than a gymnast performing a maneuver, we have rated this claim as miscaptioned.
What We Know About Pic
Some social media users claimed the image showed Italian contortionist Irene Betti. In fact, when we investigated this claim in 2021, we contacted Betti, who confirmed that she was the contortionist depicted in the image. While she could not recall specific details about the picture, she identified Michel Ritz, a French physiotherapist specializing in the study of contortionists, as the creator. Betti provided the following statement (translated via Google and edited for clarity):
Ciao sì sono io. È un immagine di lavoro del medico Michel Ritz, è un fisioterapia Francese che ha approfondito gli studi sul contorsionisti.
Hi yes it's me. It is a professional image of the doctor Michel Ritz, he is a French physiotherapy who has deepened his studies on contortionists.
We also found that the image was first shared on a website for Contortion Amsterdam, a stretching studio based in the Netherlands. Max Zegers, the owner, confirmed via email it was originally published on his www.contortiontrainer.com, but the website is now renamed to www.contortionamsterdam.nl.
"[The image] was taken in 2009 by a French doctor in France whose name I forgot. The girl on the scan is Irene Betti from Italy," Zegers stated.
While the blue scan was not available on the website at the moment of this writing, it featured a nearly identical image captioned: "One of my students in a MRI scanner. Notice the angle of the neck." The image is displayed below:
(www.contortionamsterdam.nl)
Text in the bottom-right corner of the image indicated that it was created using OsiriX, a medical imaging viewer.
Below is a comparison between the blue-tinted image shared on social media and the X-ray posted on the Contortion Amsterdam website, which are identical except for their coloring.
When asked about the color differences, Zegers responded: "There are several versions of this photo. Both are the same. Or maybe somebody downloaded the photo and turned it into blue. I have no idea, it is more than 15 years ago."
Additionally, an animated version of the scan, also created using OsiriX, was available in the Contortion Amsterdam website's section titled, "The secret of a flexible back," with a caption reading: "One of my students, Irene in the 3D scanner – Contortion Amsterdam."
(Contortion Amsterdam)
The accompanying text discussed the anatomy of backbending poses and highlighted the importance of neck flexibility in creating the visual effect of an extreme backbend. It also informed it was captured via an MRI scanner (we translated it using Google Translate, emphasis added):
An aspect that is overlooked by most people is the mobility of the neck. If you look closely at a contortionist you will see that she can bend her head so far back that the back of her head touches her back. The flexibility of the neck is an important visual part of the back bending, because of this the back seems to bend deeper than it actually does. Just look at the above video of one of my students from Italy, Irene, who was invited by a French researcher to take a seat in the MRI scanner to have her back scanned during a 'head-sit'. You can clearly see that the angle of the neck is deeper than that of the back. Irene does not have a particularly hypermobile back but she was crazy about contortion and absolutely wanted to sit on her head. After a few months of training she succeeded. Partly due to the fact that her neck has become considerably more flexible due to the training. So you see, there is always hope.
We asked Zegers whether the image was indeed captured using an MRI scanner or an X-ray or CT scan, as suggested by numerous social media users. He responded: "In my opinion it is a MRI scan, but I am not a doctor. [...] It also can be both, an X-ray (the blue one) and a MRI scan (the moving video)."
For context, some social media users shared an authentic photograph of Betti striking a pose similar to the one in the viral image:
We have reached out to Betti for a comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
Snopes has investigated similar images in the past, including a rumor that an X-ray showed hundreds of bubble tea pearls inside a teenage girl's stomach and an image allegedly showing an X-ray of a 900-pound man.
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