Sharpshooter Yusuf Dikeç didn’t actually win a gold medal at the Paris Games, but the retired Turkish cop appears to have inspired a whole generation of Olympic champions in their celebrations.
Left hand at their side, face impassive, right hand stretched out in an imaginary pistol aiming at an imaginary target. Bam!
How do you say “Go ahead punk, make my day!” in Turkish?
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It was Dikeç’s casual shooting stance—one hand in his pocket, no fancy eye-blinders or other shooting paraphernalia—that made him perhaps the most meme-worthy athlete of the Paris Games, where the 51-year-old won silver in the mixed 10-meter air pistol event, his first medal in five straight Olympics.
Sweden's Armand Duplantis was first to deploy the sharpshooter meme.
Photo by Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu via Getty ImagesThe meme took on a life of its own as gold medal winners adopted the Dikeç stance after blowing away their Olympic rivals.
First up was Sweden’s Armando Duplantis, who went into a shooting pose after capturing the gold medal and setting a world record in the pole vault--earning a congratulatory tweet from Dikeç himself.
The women’s pole vault champion, Nina Kennedy of Australia, also busted out the move—although she looked like she was enjoying herself a bit too much.
That same night came the turn of Jamaican discus thrower Roje Stona after he captured gold with an Olympic record. Track and field champions at the Stade de France are given the honor of ringing a massive trackside bell that will end up in the rebuilt Notre-Dame cathedral after the Olympics.
Stona, channeling Dikeç perfectly, took aim at the bell instead.
Roje Stona of Team Jamaica celebrates after winning the gold medal and breaking the Olympic record in the only way possible.
Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesDikeç himself told Reuters on Friday that he was never quite as chilled as he appeared to be on the shooting range.
“At that moment, everyone says I seemed very calm, but actually, storms were raging inside me,” he said, back at training in Ankara. “I think my shooting pose represented the Olympic spirit very well: the fair play, simplicity, clarity and naturalness. That’s why it got so much attention.”
Having won his first medal after competing in every Summer Olympics since Beijing 2008, Dikeç is determined to go one better in Los Angeles in 2028. “I’ve only lent the gold medal until 2028.”
