After Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec gained social media attention for his nonchalant ease at the shooting range during the 2024 Paris Olympics, it is being claimed that he took up shooting following a heated argument with his ex-wife.
The viral claim further suggested that Dikec used to work as a mechanic in a small garage in Istanbul and first picked up a gun during a “frustrating divorce mediation”.
The image of the caption reads: “Dikec Yusuf, who only recently took up shooting after a particularly heated argument with his ex-wife, credits his success to his newfound passion for seeing his kids and a relentless drive to prove his ex wrong. ‘I never thought I’d be here, Yusuf said. I was just aiming for a weekend with the kids.’”
The above post can be seen here (archive) which has been shared over 29 thousand times. More such posts can be seen here, here and here.
NewsMobile received the same query on the WhatsApp tipline — +91 11 7127 9799 — from one of our readers about the authenticity of the claim.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral claim, and found it to be false.
Searching with relevant keywords and social media posts, the NM team detected the original post on the Facebook page — The Sports Memery, dated August 01, 2024 (archive). The page bio describes it as humorous or satirical in nature.
Additionally, on August 2, 2024 (archive), The Sports Memery page posted a clarification (archive) addressing the viral claim about Dikec, stating that the claim along with all other content on the page was satirical, and not based on reality.
As per the Olympics’ official website, Yusuf Dikec is a Four-time Olympian (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) and began competing in shooting in 2001. Apart from the recent silver Olympic medal, he won the double World Champion in 2014 in the 25m standard pistol and 25m centre fire pistol (silver in the 10m air pistol) and silver in the 10m air pistol mixed team in 2023.
Based on the above findings, it can be concluded that a satirical claim about Yusuf Dikec was mistakenly treated as real.
