Yusuf Dikec is a wanted man.
Walk across the Dr Karni Singh Shooting range and the Turkiye pistol shooter is the man in demand. Children, adults and shooters – even coaches who have known him for ages – everyone wants a piece of this social media celebrity pie.
Beijing was the first time Dikec took part in an Olympics. Paris was the first time he won a medal – a mixed team silver along with teammate Sevval llayda Tarhan. From Beijing till Paris, the 51-year-old went unnoticed unless he was at a shooting range. Then, social media happened to him.
It was the everyman stance – plain Turkey t-shirt, aimlessly staring at the 10m Air Pistol target with both his eyes open and a casual hand in the pocket – all while trying to win an Olympic medal. Common to plenty of shooters but the algorithm has a way with its users and Dikec and South Korea’s Kim Ye-ji brought more attention to the sport of shooting than it had probably received in the entirety of the Ankara-native’s Olympic career spanning 16 years.
“We learned silver was more important than the gold,” jokes Dikec in New Delhi on Tuesday. It’s almost an acknowledgment of the absurdity of the situation. A few viral tweets and Dikec had to trademark his pose in Turkey to protect his image rights, meet the Turkish President and even tweeted out Elon Musk in a bizarre tweet about Robots.
Before these ‘problems’ though, Dikec was known for his ironclad focus. Many shooters wear shooting glasses which are a combination of one blinder and another called the iris diaphragm. The idea of the diaphragm is to reduce aperture and essentially lock in on a target. Dikec turns up with a pair of earbuds, a pistol and keeps both his eyes open when shooting.
Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec, who won the silver in the mixed team 10-meter air pistol event in Paris 2024 Olympics combined with Sevval Ilayda Tarhan, shows his medal during an inteview with Reuters in Ankara, Turkey, August 8, 2024. (REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan)
“It took so much time to gain the ability to shoot with both my eyes open. But I solved the issue and have been following this technique for a long time. Initially we tried closing one eye and shooting and then opening both eyes before taking a shot and this method worked best for me,” said Dikec.
For the world, he was a meme. To other athletes like Mondo Duplantis, he became a celebration. But in Turkiye, the focus remained on Dikec and Tarhan’s mixed team silver, a first ever medal for the country in a shooting event at the Olympics.
Before becoming a viral Olympic athlete, he was best known in shooting circles as a former non-commissioned officer in the Turkish Gendarmarie. His career in the sport started quite late as he only picked up shooting when he was 28 and made it to the Beijing Olympics at 35. When the Los Angeles Olympics roll in, he will be 55 and has made it clear that he’s going to try to win gold one more time.
Despite a successful Olympic campaign, Dikec was not able to make the eight-man cut for the 10m Air Pistol final at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi.
“After the Olympics we had to attend so many dinners and receptions. There hasn’t been much time to train or meet friends and family. Meeting my daughter after the end of the Olympics was the best thing that happened,” says the shooter, dismissing the result as a matter of just not being able to make the time amidst all the meetings that he has had to attend in his country.
At this World Cup, there was almost a sense that things would finally settle down for him but every step he takes has been followed by people mimicking his pose and the constant picture requests.
“Initially, I enjoyed it, but now it’s getting a bit boring because everyone asks about the same things,” says the shooter.
