Yusuf Dikec went full ‘first person shooter’ mode when he stepped up to the podium with the most casual approach at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
The Turkish shooter, 51, became a viral sensation after his unconventional technique won him a silver medal on Wednesday (31 July).
He took to the stage looking incredibly relaxed with one hand in his pocket and without any shooting gear on.
Most shooters tend to opt for ear protection and specialised glasses, but Dikec wasn’t interested. The glasses are usually tinted to help with glare and sight is limited to one eye so athletes don’t have to keep the other eye closed to aim.
Meanwhile, the sportsman’s technique was enough to see him and his partner Sevval Ilayda Tarhan claim the silver medal.
In the process, he has become the internet’s new favourite athlete, as one user wrote on Twitter: “I love how everyone uses specialised lenses for shooting to avoid blur and increase precision. But then Turkey sends out a guy who looks like he just picked up the gun for fun and wins silver.”
This is what you call aura,” another penned. “Looking like he just came out of the crowd and gave it a go … he just casually took home silver at the Olympics.”
Dude looks like he just decided to join the Olympics when he woke up this morning,” joked a third.
While a fourth added: “He came in with both eyes open and one hand in his pocket. That’s a 51-year-old man who is here to make a statement and sure he left with something… a silver medal.”
Looking at his pose, you’d know he knows what he’s doing and Turkey too sure knows what they are doing to have sent him all along,” a fifth also pointed out.
There are no headphones. No special glasses, lenses and equipment,” someone else said.
The games happened to be Dikec’s fifth Olympics as he picked up his first Olympic medal.
He and his partner narrowly missed out on gold with a final score of 16-14. Serbia’s Zorana Arunović and Damir Mikec recovered from being down 8-2 to secure the win.
The most bizarre, discontinued Olympic sports
Painting
Back in the day, the Olympics dished out medals for art too, with events including painting and sculpture, as well as music, architecture and even literature. Making its debut all the way back at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm and continuing until the 1948 London games, juries awarded competitors a total of 151 medals for artistic projects inspired by sport.
Tug of War
Bet you didn’t think this playground classic was once part of the Olympics, did you? Well, it turns out not only was the sport popular, but it stirred up a lot of drama too – with accusations of foul play flying around at the 1908 Olympics in London, with Team USA accusing Team GB of cheating due to their ‘illegal’ heavy footwear.
Hot Air Balloon Racing
Launching at the 1900 Olympics, hot air balloon drivers would compete in races scoring how far they could travel, altitude reached, ability to land within the correct coordinates and – to top it all off – who got the best photo from the balloon. The sport ended up being canned after a ban on motorised sports was brought in.
Live Pigeon Shooting
Also making its debut at the 1900 Olympics, the event was pretty self-explanatory – a load of pigeons were released into the air as the competitor tried to shoot as many as possible. Grim. The event only appeared at the Games once, and all in all, it’s estimated that Olympic hopefuls killed around 300 pigeons.
Pistol Duelling
It doesn’t take much guessing as to why this event was scrapped, but back in 1906, people clearly didn’t bat an eyelid at competitors waving pistols around and shooting at each other. It began with competitors shooting at dummies, but two years later organisers decided to shake things up and have them shoot at each other with wax bullets. Ouch. 1908 would be the last time the sport was included in the Olympics, so I’m guessing they quickly realised it was a bad idea – wax bullets or not.