Did a Turkish mechanic, Yusuf Dikec, discover a passion for sport shooting while going through a "particularly frustrating divorce mediation" and did he send his ex-wife a message from the Olympic podium that he wants his dog back? No, that's not true: This origin story is satire, in reality he has been an internationally competitive sport shooter since 2001. Now retired, Dikec began his career as a non-commissioned officer in the Turkish Gendarmerie and soon was assigned to the Ankara Gendarmerie Sports Force.
A copy of the original post was published by the Facebook page Earth's Treasures on August 2, 2024. It was captioned:
Dikec Yusuf, who recently started shooting after a heated argument with his ex-wife, attributes his success to his newfound passion for spending time with his children and a strong desire to prove his ex wrong. 'I never imagined I'd reach this point,' Yusuf commented with a casual shrug. 'I just wanted to spend weekends with my kids.'At 52, Yusuf, who works as a mechanic in a small garage in Istanbul, first handled a gun during a particularly frustrating divorce mediation. ...
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Aug 6 15:42:56 2024 UTC)
The satirical backstory ended:
After winning silver, Yusuf stood emotionless on the Olympic podium and declared, 'Sharon, if you're watching this, I want my dog back.'
The fictional backstory originated in an August 1, 2024, post from a satire Facebook page called The Sports Memery with the subheading, "The fakest fake news on the internets." The text has been copied and pasted to other sites without the context.
The text of the post did not initially carry a direct satire disclaimer, which the post's history shows was added on August 3, 2024. The edit history also shows the detail about the dog was added about 15 minutes after the post was first made. The disclaimer now reads (parentheses from the original):
(This is a satirical post. We are a clearly labeled satire / parody page)
Dikec began competing in shooting sports in 2001 and continued to further his education in coaching. An extensive list of Dikec's titles up to 2019 appears with a short biography (archived here) in the Turkish language on a Turkish high school career-day article promoting an upcoming visit from the Olympic sports hero.
On August 4, 2024, the ISSF (International Shooting Sport Federation) posted on X with footage from the 2011 World Championship held in Berlin, when Dikec won the gold medal in Men's 10M Air Pistol.
We found the young Yusuf Dikec archive footage 👀
-- ISSF (@issf_official) August 4, 2024
The Turkish shooter didn't even wear glasses in 2011 😅#ISSF | #ShootingSport | #HitTheMark pic.twitter.com/v5O3VAgkAE
In 2006 Dikec claimed a world champion title at the CISM Military World Championships in Norway. Starting with Beijing in 2008, the 2024 Paris Olympics are the fifth consecutive Olympic games Dikec has competed in. The silver medal Dikec earned with Sevval Ilayda Tarhan in the Paris 2024 10-meter air pistol mixed team competition was Turkey's first ever medal in Olympic shooting.
Other fact check agencies have also reviewed this claim, including CheckYourFact and PolitiFact.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks about the 2024 Paris Olympics can be found here.
