Incredibly impressive detail emerges about shooting silver medallist who competed with 'no equipment'
A British pistol shooter has explained why viral Turkish Olympian Yusuf Dikeç's lack of kit is actually even more impressive than you think.
One of the wonderful things about the Olympics is how it brings to prominence sports and competitors who'd normally go unnoticed by the wider public.
Every sport deserves a bit of time in the sun and at Paris 2024 shooting has been enjoying a major spike in popularity.
That's been helped in no small part by the 'aura' and coolness surrounding silver medallists Yusuf Dikeç and Kim Yeji.
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People were dazzled by South Korean shooter Kim as she was decked out in fancy gear and glasses that look 'like something out of a sci-fi film' while she also had her daughter's toy elephant clipped to her belt.
Meanwhile, Turkish shooter Dikeç gained a new legion of fans for quite the opposite reason as he rocked up to his event and won silver while looking about as casual as an Olympic athlete could.
With hand in pocket and an apparent lack of specialist equipment, he looked every inch the cool guy who strolled into the Olympics and casually won a silver medal.
British pistol shooting hopeful James Miller, who is aiming to compete in the 2028 Olympics, told LADbible exactly what exactly makes these shooters so impressive.
Speaking of Dikeç, who according to James is a 'lovely guy', he explained how much gear a shooter wants to wear is all a matter of personal preference.
He said: "If you can see without a blinder and you can shoot with both eyes open, then that's really impressive.
"And most people might say it's harder, but it helps with the light, you get more light into your eyes.
"I know Yusuf just wears his normal prescription glasses, the only difference between normal glasses and a shooter’s pair of glasses is they’d just be a bit more specific about where they’d sit on your face."
The Brit also explained why the 51-year-old silver medallist had his hand in his pocket for his shooting, as it wasn't just about looking cool.
"The idea is to be relaxed as possible," Miller noted, saying that 'everyone seems to be liking the hand in the pocket' and explaining that it's something pistol shooters will do to help their aim.
“Lots of shooters shoot either with their hand in the pocket or their hand on the front belt loop.
"You don’t want that body to be tense and secure, certainly for air pistol shooting. Just have your hand there and your arm sits down nice and relaxed.
"I think Yusuf’s proven you don’t need all the gear to compete at a high level and it’s completely a personal preference.
"If you train well you can do whatever you want. It’s nice about pistol shooting, you don’t need the extra gear."
How much gear a shooter wears is really up to them, with James noting that he's seen Dikeç donning a cap before but for the Olympics 'clearly he thought he didn't need a cap'.
As for the equipment many of the other shooters were sporting, he said: "You'll see people with a variety of equipment, shooting with both eyes or shooting with one eye open.
"Most people would shoot with a blinder. So that'd be a piece of plastic or something over your non-dominant eye.
"Just because when you when you look down the sights, or if you just stick your finger out, you'll see double vision because it's quite close to your eyes.
"So if you close one eye then you can see one set of sights, but you don't want to be closing your eyes for the whole amount of time so most people have a blinder.
“It’s not necessarily a skill-based thing, it’s just more personal preference."
A particular piece of Kim's kit caught a lot of people's eyes, and would have helped her with her vision.
He said: "Most people have a blinder, you see that on Kim, lots of shooters have a blinder on their non-dominant eye.
"The iris that Kim wears is like a black iris on an aperture that lots of people have.
"That sits on the lens and you can adjust the level of light and your depth of vision.
“It’s all about customisation and what works best for you."
Here's hoping to more cool athletes getting some recognition at the remainder of the Olympics, and maybe when 2028 rolls around we'll get to see more of James.
Joe Harker