Kim Yeji the South Korean Pistol Shooter

About

Kim Yeji, also known as Kim Ye-ji or Yeji Kim, is a female South Korean sport shooter who participated in the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics in an Olympic Shooting Competition. A video of Kim winning gold and breaking a world record at the ISSF World Cup 2024 went viral on Twitter / X amid the 2024 Olympics in July of that year. Many X users humorously labeled her the "main character" and became infatuated with her look as she became the subject of memes. In the 2024 Olympics, she won silver in the 10m Air Pistol Women's Final, outmatched by her countrywoman Oh Ye Jin. Internet users shared Kim's Olympic press release photos in which she was wearing sports shooting glasses, adding to the discourse about her aura. She was compared to Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikeç and other 2024 Olympic Shooters in memes posted in mid-2024.

History

Kim Yeji was born on September 4th, 1992, in Seoul, South Korea.^[1] Prior to the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics, she made no Olympic appearances.^[1] In 2024, Kim won a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup 2024 in the 25m Pistol Women's Final. She also broke a world record for the performance. An interview with Kim was posted to YouTube^[2] by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) on May 10th, 2024 (shown below).

Kim Yeji has a 5-year-old daughter who's in kindergarten according to South Korean news outlets.^[13] Kim notably held her daughter's elephant toy during the 10m Air Pistol Women's Final (shown below).^[14]

Online Presence

Kim Yeji became the subject of internet discourse and memes predominantly after she competed at the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics. On July 28th, 2024, X^[3] user @bamtolerate tweeted the video of Kim breaking the world record at the ISSF World Cup 2024, gaining over 3.4 million views and 20,000 likes in two days, until the media was disabled by the copyright owner.

On July 29th, X^[4] user @bamtolerate posted the clip again but with a longer cut, gaining over 4.9 million views and 48,000 likes in a day (shown below). The video was originally from the YouTube^[5] channel of KBS News.

세계신기록 클립 더 길게 따옴,, 뉴스에서 짤렸던 뒷부분이 더 미침… pic.twitter.com/Gn2nyIMnMF

— 밤톨러 (@bamtolerate) July 29, 2024

The abovementioned tweets received a slew of quotes, replies and separate tweets in which users idolized Kim. For instance, on July 28th, 2024, X^[6] user @seungylee14 tweeted photos of Kim and the Indian competitor at the Olympics, writing, "Olympics shooting, I apologize I wasn't familiar with your game (Ghost in the Shell cyborg tech)," gaining over 72,000 likes in two days (shown below, left).

Also on July 28th, X^[7] user @is_the_princess tweeted three photos of Kim taken for the South Korean National Team, writing, "I'm looking at the air pistol and this girl is so cool, I'm crazy," gaining over 12,000 likes in two days (shown below).

The abovementioned Olympic photos of Kim (shown below) were spread across social media via other viral posts on X^[8] and Reddit ^[9] (among other sites).

Videos and fan edits of Kim also surfaced on TikTok. For instance, on July 29th, 2024, TikToker^[10] @lesbianservice posted the video of Kim at the ISSF World Cup 2024, writing in text overlay, "I'm kinda crazy about kim yeji…" amassing over 3 million plays and 411,700 likes in a day (shown below, left).

Also on July 29th, TikToker^[11] @spinningonice posted a fan edit of Kim, gaining over 182,100 plays and 6,000 likes in a day (shown below, right).

On July 29th, 2024, X^[12] user @TheCartelDel reposted the video of Kim at the ISSF World Cup 2024, writing, "The most 'Main Character Energy' I've ever seen in my life," amassing over 284,000 likes in a day (shown below).

The most "Main Character Energy" I've ever seen in my life.pic.twitter.com/ExuXVxB3VB

— Del Walker 🇵🇸 (@TheCartelDel) July 30, 2024

Yeji Kim / Yusuf Dikeç Comparison Memes

Shortly after Yeji Kim went viral online, Turkish sharpshooter and Olympic athlete Yusuf Dikeç did the same. Unlike Kim, who went viral for her headgear and high-tech gadgets, among other things, Dikeç went viral for wearing no fancy gear whatsoever and taking home the silver medal.

The viral emergence of the two sharpshooters led to a variety of art and memes pairing the two together. For example, South Korean artist @luckymong1^[15] posted art of the two on July 31st, 2024, gaining over 37,000 retweets and 295,000 likes in one day (shown below).

Memes also emerged that used the two to make jokes about modern vs. outdated technology. One comparison template spread on Reddit, and the template posted to the /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial^[16] subreddit by Redditor liminal_liminality on July 31st gained over 280 points in one day. They also posted an example use of the template (shown below, left).

On August 1st, Twitter user @retropolisart^[17] posted a comparison that gained over 16,000 retweets and 169,000 likes in a matter of hours (shown below, right).

Template

Various Examples

This girl is a movie character like how is she real pic.twitter.com/hys1bLyj4t

— Daniel (@growing_daniel) July 30, 2024

This the shit that killed shinzo abe pic.twitter.com/2yG1KDqmbZ

— goth (goth600) July 30, 2024

Search Interest

External References