Turkey has bid farewell to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games – which concluded yesterday with a spectacular grand ceremony at the Stade de France – with only eight medals to its name and, for the first time in 40 years, no gold medals, which is the subject of much debate and comment in the country’s mainstream media.
Numerous Turkish media reported that, for the first time since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Turkish athletes are returning home without winning a single gold medal. A total of 3 silver medals and 5 bronze medals were won in Paris 2024; thus, Turkey finishes 64th in the Paris Olympics rankings, far below its participation in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where it won 13 medals in total – 2 gold, 2 silver and 9 bronze medals – ranking 35th.
On a positive note, the men’s archery team won an Olympic medal for the first time in its history, after the trio of Mete Gazoz, Ulaş Berkim Tümer and Abdullah Yıldırmış took bronze. Turkish boxers Hatice Akbaş and Buse Naz Çakıroğlu both won silver medals, while another boxer, Esra Yıldız Kahraman, won bronze. The remaining bronze medals were won by Buse Tosun Çavuşoğlu and Taha Akgül in women’s and men’s wrestling respectively, and athlete Nafia Kuş Aydın Kuş in taekwondo.
Yusuf Dikeç, the star of the Olympics
But one of the most talked-about medals of the Olympics was undoubtedly the silver medal won by the mixed 10-metre air pistol shooting team of Şevval İlayda Tarhan and Yusuf Dikeç. Dikeç’s peculiar style, competing without any special equipment and shooting with one hand in his pocket, has made him famous all over the world, earning him the nickname of the “Turkish John Wick“.
Despite this sudden and unexpected fame – in fact Dikeç has been competing in this way for years – this former sergeant of the Turkish Gendarmerie assures that he is still “the same person”. “The day after we got our silver medal, everyone was talking about all the times my photos were shared on social media. But that’s something I don’t care about. I continue my life as before,” he told agencies.
Commenting on his famous hand-in-pocket shooting stance that made him famous at the Paris Olympics, Diceç, born 51 years ago in a humble village in the province of Kahramanmaraş (SE Turkey), said it was not forced or for show, but had a technical explanation related to his sporting discipline. “Some people think that putting my hand in my pocket is a sign of arrogance. But they don’t know anything about me or the sport of shooting,” he laughed. “I just do it to keep my body more stable, to keep my balance. My muscles have to be relaxed. That’s all,” Dikeç explained.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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