Grandma’s Viral Pole Vault? An AI-Generated Stunt
A viral video purporting to show a 95-year-old woman performing a pole vault has garnered millions of views, with users praising her as a fitness inspiration. However, the video is AI-generated.
A video claiming to show a 95-year-old woman performing a pole vault has gone viral on social media, with users hailing her as a fitness inspiration.
OBC found that the circulating video is AI-generated and does not depict a real event.
The viral video
On 10 September, an X user @adineshaa posted a video on X with the caption, ‘95 and still soaring. Stay fit today, fly at 95? #FitIndia #HitIndia.’
The video has amassed over 4 million views and more than 5.6k likes.
Several other Indian social media accounts have also circulated similar videos. Instagram user kl8._freak posted the same video with the caption ‘Never stop chasing your dream’.
This post quickly gained traction, with more than 9.9 million views and 246k likes.
On 10 September, an X user, Shiksha News Rajasthan (@ShikshaNewsRaj), shared the video with a caption, ‘🔥 95 Year Old Woman Pole Vaults 😂 AI is now real threat for human 🤗’.
The post has gained 6.2k views.
What’s the real story?
Many users commented on the video and flagged it as AI-generated. One X user remarked, ‘If an old woman tries this, I don’t think she can survive it.’ Another user pointed out the clip’s artificial nature and said, ‘Nice story but it’s AI.’
We examined the viral video closely and identified numerous discrepancies.
Upon closer inspection, the two girls in the background appear to be wearing identical team jerseys, but the names or numbers printed on the front differ.
Similarly, in the keyframe at 00:10, part of the bar to the left of her head disappears as she vaults over it.
In addition, we used Hive AI to assess whether the video was AI-generated.
The results estimated that the video had a 77.2% likelihood of being AI-generated.
We also conducted a reverse image search using key frames from the video, which led us to the earliest post. It was a Facebook post by a page called Senior Salute.
The video carries an AI disclosure tag and a caption that reads, ‘95 Years Old. She Walked Onto the Track Carrying a POLE 🇺🇸💀. A tiny ancient grandma in an American flag tee and SPORT SHORTS shuffled through a high school track meet. Pole in hand. The teens were giggling. One girl covered her laugh. 😂 Then she planted her feet… went quiet… and SPRINTED. 🥶Planted the pole. INVERTED — bony legs over her head — and CLEARED THE BAR. Flag shirt fluttering at the top of the sky. 🤯🔥Dropped onto the mat. Bounced once. Sat up with her bun half-loose and glasses crooked…And laughed the biggest laugh you’ve EVER seen. ❤️The whole meet exploded. Records are temporary. Grandma is FOREVER. 😎🇺🇸 Never giggle at a woman carrying a pole. 🫡’
Our investigation traced the clip to the page ‘Senior Salute’, which has 1.1 million followers and shares videos with Meta’s AI disclosure tag.
We also found other pages sharing similar content across social media platforms. Among them was an Instagram page called ‘Sweet & Salty Seniors’ (@sweetsaltyseniors).
The page has close to 244k followers and describes itself as an AI-generated profile with the bio: ‘sweet moments with the grandkids ’, a ‘salty attitude with zero filters’, and ‘proving age is just a high score’. The account appears to be dedicated to AI-generated depictions of senior citizens’ everyday lives. It features more than 100 AI-generated videos featuring the day-to-day activities of senior citizens.
Real Senior Pole Vaulters Do Exist
While the viral video is AI-generated, the idea of elderly pole vaulters is not far-fetched.
Flo Meiler, a Vermont-based athlete, took up track and field at the age of 60. She began pole vaulting five years later and went on to set a world record in the 80–84 age category at the 2014 USA Track and Field Adirondack Championships in Albany, New York.
Thus, the viral clip claiming to show a 95-year-old woman clearing a high-bar pole vault is AI-generated and does not depict a real athletic event. While athletes like Flo Meiler prove that pole vaulting is possible at an advanced age, this particular record-breaking video is not real.
