Turkish Olympic Shooter Goes Viral For Ordinary Look; Jokingly Called a “Hitman”

By
Ethan Oh
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In the 2024 Paris Olympics, the less-popular sport of Shooting has somehow managed to capture the attention of audiences worldwide.

I’m sure you’ve already seen the pictures of South Korean shooter Kim Ye-ji.

Kim had previously broken a world record at the ISSF World Cup in Azerbaijan and took the gold for the 25m Air Pistol category.

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In both that event and her silver medal-winning performance in the 2024 Olympics, she went viral for her sheer “aura”.

Wearing Cyberpunk-esque glasses and with a cool shooting pose, she looked like a futuristic assassin straight out of an action movie.

Image: X (@bamtolerate)

But from the same sport, a new Internet “hero” has appeared.

Turkish Olympic Shooter Goes Viral For Ordinary Look

In the 10m Air Pistol Team event on 30 July, one of the two Turkish shooters caught the attention of many.

No, he didn’t have fancy glasses or a cool jacket. That’s actually why he stood out.

Yusuf DikeƧ was, in the words of a viral tweet, “a 51-year-old guy with no specialised lenses, eye cover, or ear protection.”

The grey-haired man instead wore a simple Turkiye shirt, spectacles, and some earplugs, looking like your dad’s friend from the street.

Image: X (@PicturesFoIder)

He held a similar casual stance as Kim Ye-ji, one hand in his pocket. As air pistols shoot differently from regular guns, the optimal stance for accuracy is apparently “looking like a complete badass.”

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Fans also noticed the Turkish Olympic shooter aimed and fired with both eyes open, whereas most other shooters wore a blinder on one eye to achieve the same effect as closing it without strain.

Despite looking like he’d walked into the competition for fun an hour ago, DikeƧ and his 24-year-old shooting partner Şevval Ä°layda Tarhan secured the Olympic silver medal.

His casual look but sheer skill caused many to joke that he was secretly a hitman.

“I know a trained assassin when I see one,” an X user wrote.

“Did [Turkiye] send a hitman to the Olympics?” Another viral tweet read.

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DikeƧ didn’t help the allegations when he told Turkish media, “I did not need special equipment. I’m a natural, a natural shooter.”

DikeƧ Has Participated in 5 Olympic Games

The 51-year-old Turkish man is actually an Olympics veteran, having participated in five shooting events from 2008 to 2024, though never achieving a medal until the Paris Olympics.

Though not a hitman, he was formerly a non-commissioned officer in the Turkish Gendarmerie, a military force meant for internal security.

Another viral photo showed DikeƧ in a similarly casual orange shirt, recreating his shooting pose with a finger gun.

Image: Instagram (@oa_bak)

The world cannot handle the sheer aura of this man.

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Even the official Olympic Games X account got in on the memes, posting a photo of both Kim Ye-ji and Yusuf DikeƧ, saying they were the “Olympic #shootingsport stars we didn’t know we needed.”

The two heavily contrasted in appearance, but captured the same casually charismatic coolness, looking like opposing assassins in a thriller movie or a duo boss in a video game.

It wasn’t just these two competitive shooters who went viral, as the sport appeared determined to go viral as many times as possible.

Choe Dae-han of the Men’s 10m Air Rifle category also became popular off of his arched back stance, drawing comparison to anime characters.

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Ethan Oh