Türkiye leaves Paris with eight medals

ISTANBUL

Turkish athletes won a total of eight medals in Paris, leaving the Olympic Games without a gold medal for the first time in 40 years.

However, there were some positives at the Paris Olympics, which concluded on Aug. 11, as Turkish archers won the country’s first-ever team Olympic medal and 16-year-old Kuzey Tunçelli became the first Turkish swimmer to swim in the final of an Olympics.

The trio archers of Mete Gazoz, Ulaş Berkim Tümer and Abdullah Yıldırmış won the bronze medal in the men’s team event, boxers Hatice Akbaş and Buse Naz Çakıroğlu won silvers, while Esra Yıldız Kahraman added a bronze in the same sport.

Buse Tosun Çavuşoğlu and Taha Akgül added two more bronze medals in wrestling, while the country’s sole taekwondo medal came from Nafia Kuş Aydın, who also finished third.

Turkish women’s national volleyball team, the reigning world champion, lost the chance to another medal to the tally when it lost 3-1 to Brazil on Aug. 10 in a bronze medal match.

Türkiye finished 64th in the Olympics medal table, a much worse score than Tokyo 2020 when it was 35th with a total of 13 medals, including two golds.

The last time Türkiye failed to win a gold medal in the Olympics was in 1984 when Los Angeles hosted the Summer Games.

Türkiye also produced arguably the biggest icon of the Paris Olympics: Yusuf Dikeç, who won a silver medal in the 10-meter air pistol mixed team event with his, partner Şevval İlayda Tarhan, and became a social media sensation with his laid-back, one-handed shooting style.

His eye-catching posture saw the marksman wearing standard glasses, a team T-shirt and with his left hand casually tucked in his pocket.

Other than his pistol, he notably had none of the specialized equipment used by athletes in the hyper-precise event, like headphones, special lenses or a hat.

"The name's Dikeç. Yusuf Dikeç," said a social media post in reference to cinema icon James Bond. Other memes added a cigarette to his mouth, emphasizing his casual posture, while others put Dikec as a character in the seminal action film "The Matrix."

The master marksman's relaxed pose, widely imitated by his fellow athletes, has become associated with victory with many of his Olympic peers. Pole vault sensation Armand Duplantis was among them, celebrating his Olympic record by imitating Dikeç.

But in spite of his newfound internet fame, Dikeç insisted that he was "the same man."

"The day after our silver medal, everyone was talking to me about the number of times my photos were shared on social networks," Dikeç told AFP.

"But it doesn't matter to me. I'll continue my life as before," he said.

The 51-year-old, who was at his fifth Olympics, said there was a natural explanation for his apparently casual approach to his discipline.

"Some people thought my hand in my pocket was a sign of arrogance. They don't know anything about me or about shooting sports," he said with a laugh.

"I only do it to keep my body more stable, to keep my balance. There's nothing more to it," he added.