The internet is in love with South Korea’s record-breaking Olympic shooter
By Jessie Yeung, CNN
(CNN) — She’s impossibly cool, casually breaks world records and is the internet’s latest darling. And while her cap and futuristic glasses are merely functional accoutrements in the world of competitive shooting, they wouldn’t look out of place on a street style-inspired runway.
She’s Kim Yeji, the 31-year-old South Korean sharpshooter who has taken social media by storm following her appearance at the Paris Olympics.
Kim won silver at the 10-meter air pistol event on Sunday, with her 19-year-old teammate Oh Ye Jin taking the gold.
But it was an older video of Kim competing in Azerbaijan in May that went viral on X, formerly Twitter, gaining more than 7 million views and a horde of new fans in just a few days.
In the video, Kim wears a backwards cap over her blunt bob, her steely gaze fixed on the target through a pair of shooting glasses — a piece of specialist eyewear that helps athletes focus on the target but also looks like something out of a science-fiction movie.
Her arm extended and head tilted down, she fires and barely reacts as it emerges she has set a new world record. She flips up her glasses’ lens to stare directly at the camera before glancing impassively at the nearby screen.
Images from her Sunday performance also circulated widely online, with people complimenting not only her unflinching expression but also her black Fila jacket, Sauer shooting shoes and the stuffed toy elephant that hung from her pocket as she competed.
A photo showing Kim leaning back with one hand resting nonchalantly on her hip and the other holding a pistol, her ponytail flicking out from the back of her cap, was shared by the X account Women Posting W’s with the caption “the most aura I have ever seen in an image.” It has since been liked over 300,000 times.
Other posts on X, each boasting hundreds of thousands of likes, applauded her “main character energy” and declared her “mother,” the ultimate stamp of approval in Internet-speak. The platform’s owner, Elon Musk, meanwhile commented that Kim “should be cast in an action movie.”
Kim, a first-time Olympian, will next compete at the qualifying round of the 25-meter pistol event on Friday.
Kim and Oh’s podium finish reflects South Korea’s strength in shooting, with the country taking home medals in the event at every edition of the Summer Olympic Games since 2000.
Kim and Oh are roommates in the Olympic Village, according to the Associated Press, with Kim saying Oh was like a sister to her.
“I always want to care for her and always be there for her. So when she won the gold medal, I was extra happy,” she told the news agency ahead of Sunday’s event.
“I do not view her as my rival. This is a big stage, the Olympics, and we won the gold and silver. When we won these medals, we were so proud we are Koreans.”
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CNN’s Oscar Holland contributed to this story.
