Clara Fernandez Is The Paige Spiranac Of Pole Vaulting

The OutKick Culture Department took a vote and it's official, Spain's Clara Fernandez has been named the world's No. 1 ranked pole vaulting influencer.

As part of our responsibility to keep seeking out the new names, the new faces and the new accounts that will propel the Internet forward, it was imperative for myself and OutKick Culture Deparment team member SeanJo to buckle down and head into the summer with a clear No. 1 in pole vaulting.

Clara Fernandez is that athlete/influencer.

Mark down the name.

Remember, it's not always about the performance on the field when you're a No. 1-ranked influencer. It's about the clicks and what you're doing for the sport on social media that drives these rankings.

Will Clara Fernandez ever win an Olympic medal for Spain? That's highly unlikely as she's currently ranked 307th in the world and has never placed better than 156th in the world rankings. Paige Spiranac showed us all a long time ago that none of that matters.

Off the track, Fernandez boasts an impressive 453k Instagram followers. The Nike athlete (remember, Nike is in the business of selling track gear and they understand follower counts) is also starting to build her Tiktok audience (about 40k) while juggling her pole vaulting duties.

Laugh all you want about the rise of athletes who'll never win Olympic medals.

In 2017, I determined that Germany's Alica Schmidt should be considered the world's sexiest athlete. She had like 50k Instagram followers and was pretty much completely unknown. Now she has 3.7 million followers. She's a huge star in Europe and hasn't sniffed an Olympic medal.

Now she's known as the world's sexiest athlete and websites are still crediting that original post.

But the internet moves on and it's time for new talent to come along like Fernandez.

What's the play now for the world's No. 1 ranked pole vaulter?

That's it. We're off to the races this summer with the new Paige Spiranac of Pole Vaulting.