By Robert Nowinski
Yusuf Dikec has made a name for himself this olympic season. Yusuf was the Türkiye contestant for Air Gun, and won the silver medal. But his main achievement was the simple fact that while his contestants wore tons of high tech gear, he only had his glasses on. He had no visible hearing protection, and just focused on the target with his eyes. Images of this event and artwork of the pose circulated the internet with multiple posts online, a decent amount of them in the Hitman community. They circulated the internet so much and it gained so much traction, IO Interactive (the company that made the game) also reached out to him, asking if he would like to be in the game. He is yet to respond at the moment.
Yusuf was born in 1973 in Taşoluk village of Göksun, Kahramanmaraş, a province in Türkiye. After schooling, he enrolled in the Military School of Gendarmerie in Ankara. A gendarmerie is “a member of a body of soldiers especially in France serving as an armed police force for the maintenance of public order.” Once he graduated, he became a corporal and entered duty in Mardin. His reasoning for beginning his competitive shooting career was: “I took up shooting sport after I started working as a non-commissioned officer for the Gendarmerie General Command.” (myInfo) and his philosophy is, “Success doesn’t come with your hands in your pockets.” (myInfo) Both are from the Olympics website.
According to records from the Olympics website, he began competitive shooting in 2001 and has competed for Türkiye since 2008 in many gun and airgun competitions. He ranked 1st place in many airgun and firearm olympic competitions as well as being a 4 time olympian in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. He was double world champion in 2014 and seven-time European champion, including in air pistol trio in 2024 in Gyor.
With all these achievements and his impressive past, his career will be very interesting to watch.
beniciapaw.com 