Meet Yusuf Dikec: The Turkish shooter who has gone viral at the Paris 2024 Olympics
With one hand in his pocket and wearing standard glasses, Yusuf Dikec of Türkiye has become a fan favourite at Paris 2024.
His casual look and lack of professional equipment have been the talk of social media, but it would be unwise to underestimate his quality on this basis.
Dikec won Türkiye’s second medal of the Games and their first ever medal in Olympic shooting in Paris, taking silver in the 10m air pistol mixed team event alongside Sevval Ilayda Tarhan.
An Olympic medallist and an internet sensation, below, we get to know Yusuf Dikec.
Yusuf Dikec, experienced Olympian and Turkish record breaker
Paris is far from Dikec's first rodeo. The Turkish shooter made his Olympic debut at Beijing 2008 aged 35, and returned four years later at London 2012. It was there where he recorded his previous best result of 13th in the men’s 50m free pistol event.
Dikec then competed at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 held in 2021, though always shy of medal content or a top-10 finish.
At his fifth Games in Paris, Dikec made history by winning silver to become Türkiye’s oldest Olympic medallist aged 51 years and 212 days old.
He was already a multiple national champion and a seven-time European champion, but Olympic shooting silver is a first for both him and the nation.
Outside the Games, he has two World Championship titles to his name, both in 2014 where he was victorious in the men’s 25m centerfire pistol and the men’s 25m standard pistol events.
Dekic competing at the Olympic Games London 2012.
Dikec’s popularity at Paris 2024
If there is a sign of how the times have changed since Dikec’s Olympic debut in 2008, you only have to look at his sudden popularity on social media.
Fans have been editing the Turkish shooter into film scenes, comparing him to characters from TV shows and video games and even drawing him.
Dikec has become an especially popular name back home in Türkiye, lauded for winning just their second medal of Paris 2024.
He received a hero’s welcome home on Thursday (1 August) at the airport by a sea of Turkish flags and adorning a flower necklace and a bunch of flowers in his hands.
An Olympic silver medallist at the fifth time of asking, Dikec will certainly be remembered as much for his iconic appearance in competition as he will be for his successful Games.