The Turkish shooting champion of several pistol events, Yusuf Dikec, recently won the silver medal in the 10 m air pistol mixed team event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris along with his teammate Şevval İlayda Tarhan earning Turkey’s first-ever medal in Olympic shooting.
The 51-year-old Yusuf became an overnight internet sensation after his Olympic performance and looks, where he is seen wearing a casual T-shirt and his own eyeglasses instead of a shooting lens and without any ear protectors; he aimed to take a shot while keeping his one hand in his pocket.
On the other hand, many of his competitors, including his own teammate Tarhan, who used shooting lenses and earplugs, wore ear protectors, visors, and high-tech shooting lenses to reduce glare and improve focus.
Moreover, Yusuf Dikec’s Olympic performance is not the only thing that has been the talk of the town, people are also talking about his ex-wife and speculating different things.
Many believe that Yusuf started shooting after a particularly heated argument with his ex-wife, which led him to develop his new passion for shooting to prove his ex wrong.
Likewise, some people also believe that Yusuf didn’t have any formal training and that he chose the shooting sport not out of passion but out of a desire to spend more time with his kids after the frustrating divorce from his wife.
Others believe the speculation to be fake as Yusuf has been training for years.
People are also saying that his ex-wife’s name is Sharon. After standing on the Olympic podium with a silver medal on his neck, Yusuf, without any emotion, stated, “Sharon, if you’re watching this, I want my dog back.“
However, Yusuf has not said anything about his ex-wife or any argument between them besides rumors.
Yusuf Dikec began sport shooting after he was appointed to Jandarma Gucu
Yusuf started his sport shooting career after his entrance to Jandarma Gucu in Ankara, a sports club of the Turkish Gendarmerie, after serving one year as a sergeant in Istanbul.
He officially began shooting in 2001, and since then, Dikec has competed in several military and national teams and Turkish, ISSF world, and European championships.
Yusuf has also set a world record in the 25m center-fire pistol event at the CISM Military World Championships held in Rena, Norway, in the year 2006. He also became the double gold medalist in the 25m standard pistol and 25m center-fire pistol at the 2013 European Shooting Championships in Osijek, Croatia.
With his exceptional shooting skills, Yusuf Dikec has won the hearts of millions, making him one of the most popular Olympians of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Regarding his personal life and family, Yusuf Dikec prefers to maintain a private life away from the media, so very little information about his family, including his children, is available.
However, the Olympian has become so popular that people are searching for him all over, even using misnomers like Yusuf Dilek, Yusuf Dikek, Dicek Yusuf, etc.
Additional Information
- Yusuf Dikec was born in 1973 in Tasoluk village of Goksun district in Kahramanmaras Province in Turkey. He completed primary schooling in his village and secondary studies in Goksun.
- He attended the Military School of Gendarmerie in Ankara in 1994, and after graduating from the Military school, he became a corporal and started his duty in Mardin. After completing his duty in 1999, Yusuf attended the Military school of Gendarmerie, where after a year, he became a sergeant serving one year in Istanbul.
- Yusuf won the bronze medal in the 10-metre air pistol event at the 2012 ISSF World Cup final in Bangkok, Thailand.
