‘A bit famous now’: Cool, casual Olympic shooters unfazed by internet storm

Turkish Olympic shooting medallist Yusuf Dikec says he is unfazed by his newfound fame after his casual style with no headwear and a hand in his pocket made him an overnight internet sensation.

Dikec and partner Sevval Ilayda Tarhan won silver on Tuesday in the mixed team 10-metre (10.9-yard) air pistol, losing to Serbia in the gold medal match.

But it was Dikec’s posture that caught attention as much as the result. The marksman wore standard glasses, a team T-shirt and had his left hand casually slung in his pocket.

Other than his pistol, he notably had none of the specialised equipment used by athletes in the hyperprecise event like headphones, special lenses or a hat.

“Be cool like Yusuf Dikec. Congratulations on winning the silver medal in such a cool way,” France’s embassy in Turkey wrote in a post on X in Turkish.

“The name’s Dikec. Yusuf Dikec,” said posts by other users in reference to cinema icon James Bond. Some memes added a cigarette to his mouth to emphasise the relaxed posture.

Speaking to Turkish channel TGRT Haber, Dikec acknowledged he had adopted the rare technique of shooting with both eyes open whereas most athletes keep one closed or obscured.

“My shooting technique is one of the rare shooting techniques in the world. I shoot with both eyes open. Even the referees are surprised by this,” he said on Thursday.

He said winning a medal was no surprise because “this year we prepared a lot and worked a lot. … This success belongs to all of Turkey.”

“Success doesn’t come with your hands in your pockets.”

Some social media users suggested equal attention should also be given to his shooting partner in the mixed event, Tarhan, who images showed adopted an equally casual hand-in-pocket stance, albeit wearing headphones and a visor.

Turkish Sports Minister Osman Askin Bak congratulated Dikec on social media, posting a photo of him recreating his now “legendary pose”.

Clutching a Turkish flag and their medals, Dikec and Tarhan both celebrated their victory at the Champions Park at the Trocadero complex in Paris on Wednesday.

The Olympic #shootingsport stars we didn’t know we needed.

🇰🇷 Kim Yeji 🤝 Yusuf Dikeç 🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/gfkyGjFg4I

— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) August 1, 2024

South Korean shooter Kim Ye-ji brings ‘main character energy’

Earlier in the week, a South Korean Olympic sharpshooter who took silver in the women’s 10-metre air pistol also went viral.

Wearing her black South Korea uniform zipped up to the neck, a baseball hat and wire-rimmed shooting glasses, 31-year-old Kim was almost preternaturally calm in videos showing her and her teammate locking up the top two shooting scores in Paris on Sunday.

After her win, a 27-second clip showing Kim with the same ultra-calm manner taking aim, shooting her weapon and checking her record-breaking score went viral.

The video, which appears to have been shared first in a Reddit thread, actually shows Kim at the Baku World Cup in May, not in Paris.

But even as social media platform X flagged some posts for sharing the footage out of context, the video continued to spread online alongside images of Kim from Paris.

Kim was quickly declared “the coldest style star of this year’s Games” by style magazine GQ.

“The first-time Olympian took to the range at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre looking like an ultra-contemporary, sportswear-wearing sci-fi assassin,” GQ said.

One video post that declared Kim to have “the most main character energy” racked up more than 28 million views in a day.

The footage has spawned fan art of Kim, multiple edits setting the clip to K-pop music and endless memes, including some discussing her unique “aura”.

Kim, who is ranked first in the women’s 10-metre air pistol and fourth in the 25-metre pistol, will be shooting again this week in Paris.

For Kim, the 25-metre event is actually her speciality – and fans will get to watch her in preliminaries on Friday and the finals the following day.

“I am confident all the time. … I, Kim Ye-ji, am going to win gold no matter what,” she told reporters.

Kim, who lists her hobbies as “sleeping”, told South Korean media that she was looking forward to speaking to her five-year-old daughter after all her events are over.

When asked what she wants to tell her, Kim said gleefully of her new online notoriety: “I think I have become a bit famous now.”