It certainly looks impressive.
Looking like a cross between a professional diamond dealer and a top sniper from a sci-fi rebel army, South Korean pistol shooter Kim Ye-ji, the internet's newest Olympian, is one of the hottest stars of the Paris Games so far.
That's the great thing about the Olympics: Before the games, we get to look forward to all the things we know from before: track and field athlete Sha'Cary Richardson, tennis player Andy Murray's retirement match, gymnast Simone Biles.
But there are some things you never knew you were interested in until you saw them, and this incredibly cool looking pistol shooter definitely falls into that category.
Kim garnered attention online after competing in the 10-meter air pistol, the first of two events in Paris on Sunday.
“This is the most aura-filled image I've ever seen,” wrote the X-account “Women Posting Ws,” which appears to be the source of her buzz, alongside a photo of Kim arching her back slightly, resting her chin on her shoulders and with her non-firing hand in her pocket as she shoots at a target.
(Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
The consensus on social media seemed to be that Kim looks like a robot assassin from an action movie, a futuristic killer who doesn't need clothes, boots or a bike because she's cool enough as is. GQ wrote that she “seems like she stepped out of a cyberpunk fan fiction.” Glamour asked if Kim was “the coolest guy at the Paris Olympics.” Elon Musk chimed in, but we won't let him spoil it for us.
The device she was wearing wasn't technically glasses, but rather a small platform attached to her forehead to aid her performance: over her left eye was a small black rectangle, acting as a blindfold that blocked one eye and allowed the other to focus better; over her right eye was a small black circle, which is actually a relatively common device that features a mechanical iris to prevent blurring and allow for better focus on the target.
Then another video began circulating of Kim performing, wearing the same “glasses” and exuding the same amazingly steady hand and android composure, but this time with her hat on backwards. In it, she is seen firing the final shot, putting down the pistol, lifting the blindfold over her left eye, and giving a backstage look that is likely to confirm the score, but which also appears to viewers as her glaring with arctic sympathy at some unspecified suspect.
The footage isn't actually from the Olympics, but from the World Cup in Baku earlier this year, where she set a new world record, winning the 25m pistol, a record she will be trying to beat in another event on Friday.
Kim, 31, is from Maepo, about 100 miles southeast of Seoul, and now lives in nearby Danyang. She has been competing since 2006 and won a bronze medal in the 10-meter air pistol at the 2010 World Junior Championships. Her profile on the International Shooting Sport Federation website lists her hobbies simply as “sleeping.”
There was something else that added to the feeling that she was actually a character in a Luc Besson film: Usually, in these highly stylized stories, the assassin has some unusual affectation: a fascination with a particular kind of music, a religious adherence to an ancient code of conduct, a strange affection for pet budgerigars, or something else.
Kim competed with a stuffed elephant strapped to her belt, which could be dismissed as a personal quirk, but was actually a kind of good luck charm for her 5-year-old daughter back in South Korea.
Speaking to reporters after her 10-metre medal ceremony, Kim said she was eager to share her success with her daughter. Asked what she planned to say about her medal and newfound online status, she replied, “I guess I'm a little bit famous.”
The problem in all this, whether you can call it that or not, is that Kim didn't actually win. At least not this time. The gold medal went to compatriot Oh Ye-jin, 12 years Kim's junior, who beat her by just a few points to set an Olympic record of 243.2. Kim earned 241.3 points, and both women beat the previous record of 240.3 set in Tokyo by Russia's Vitalina Vatsarashkina. India's Manu Bakhter was a distant third.
Wang shed tears after winning the gold medal. “I still can't believe that I'm wearing the gold medal around my neck right now,” he said. “Maybe with time I'll be able to believe it. By the way, this medal is very heavy.”
Kim wasn't the only one to have a little business card — in her case it was an elephant, while Oh had a little purple heart on the tip of a pistol — but unfortunately, only during post-competition photos, not during the actual competition.
(Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
But adding to the wholesome nature of this story is that Kim couldn't be happier for Oh, who is also her roommate in the Paris Olympic Village.
“She's like my little sister,” Kim told The Associated Press. “I always care about her and I always want to be there for her, so I was very happy when she won the gold medal.”
“I don't think of her as a rival. The Olympics is a big stage and we won gold and silver. When we won the medals, we felt very proud to be Korean.”
When a sporting event or athlete essentially becomes a meme, it usually grabs people's attention after the event and then fades away, perhaps until the next time a similar global event occurs and people say, “Oh, yeah, I remember her.”
But now the internet will have a second chance to witness Kim in all her shooting glory when she competes in the 25m pistol event on Friday — and she seems confident she'll take it one step further.
“I am always confident… I, Kim Yeji, will win the gold medal no matter what.”
(Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
