Turkish shooter's picture hitting silver medal at Olympics attracts global attention

Yusuf Dikec, a Turkish Olympic silver medalist who shoots without special equipment, has gone viral on the internet.

Dikec and his teammate Sevval Ilayda Tarhan won the silver medal in the 10 metres air pistol mixed team competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Tuesday, after losing the final to Serbia 16-14, which marked the first-ever Olympic medal for Turkiye in shooting.

Dikec’s cool demeanour at the event gained global attention. While other competitors wore safety equipment and specialist glasses to improve focus and stop glare, Dikec took part wearing a t-shirt that said ‘Turkiye’ and his normal eye glasses and with one hand in his pocket.

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

Many social media accounts reacted to the 51-year-old’s photos and videos from the shooting.

His pictures even became the subject of memes and he was also used to replace characters on several popular video game and movie posters as part of a trending joke.

Elon Musk, business magnate and CEO of social media platform X, responded to the Turkish athlete’s shooting photos by writing “Nice” in his comments.

Dikec, a retired Turkish army officer, has previously won two gold medals in the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championships, one gold medal in the ISSF World Cup, and five gold medals in the European Shooting Championships.​​​​​​​

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