Olympic shooting star’s origin story about messy divorce began as satire

A Turkish air pistol shooter became a social media sensation at the Paris Olympics — not for winning a silver medal with his partner, but for his meme-worthy casual appearance and shooting stance while competing.

Yusuf Dikec, wearing a T-shirt and forgoing some of the high-tech glasses or equipment other shooters donned, was seen in photographs and videos with one hand in his pocket as he took aim at his target. 

His appearance fascinated social media users, who jokingly wrote that he was a hit man or John Wick, the action movie character played by Keanu Reeves. 

Along with the jokes, one story about Dikec making the rounds on social media claims he had a dark backstory to his shooting prowess.

An Aug. 1 Instagram post shared a photo of Dikec with a few paragraphs of text above it that said he "first picked up a gun during a particularly frustrating divorce mediation." After winning his silver medal, the post claimed, Dikek "stood emotionless on the Olympic podium and declared, ‘Sharon, if you’re watching this, I want my dog back.’"

We found similar posts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

(Instagram screenshot)

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"Colin Kaepernick immediately loses Nike endorsement after anti-white rant."

That would make a compelling story if it were true. But the tall tale came from a satirical account called The Sportsmemery, which shared the fake Dikec story in an Aug. 1 post that it described as satire, something the other posts sharing the story omitted.

It seems Dikek may be more of a cat person, at least according to his Instagram account, where he shared two photos of himself with a feline friend in 2022. There was no photo of him with a dog there.

One Facebook post shared side-by-side photos of Dikec shooting at the Olympics next to one of him at home with the cat. "If something ever happens to that cat, we’re about to get four movies out of this guy," it said, a reference to  the action film series "John Wick."

The claim that Dikec took up shooting during a messy divorce and told his ex from the Olympic podium that he wants his dog back originated as satire. The social media posts that omit that distinction are False.