South Korea’s record-breaking Olympic shooter -Kim Yeji.
This meme is funny but they are pretty similar. The only “gear” Yejin is wearing is the shooting glasses, which is basically a prescription lens (no magnification is allowed - these lens make things look less blurry, but can’t make them look bigger) on a frame that allows more adjustment than normal eyeglasses, with a piece of plastic instead of lens over the other eye. You can achieve something very similar by taping a piece of paper to the left lens of your own glasses.
The advantage shooting glasses provide is the ability to move the lens up/down/sideways. Depending on your specific shooting stance, if your head is tilted too much, normal eyeglasses may not provide the best field of view if you’re only looking through one side of it. In those cases, you buy a pair of shooting glasses and move the lens. If you look at Yejin’s shooting stance, her arm is almost parallel with her body, whereas Dikec’s arm is slightly angled forwards (not much, maybe 10 degrees?). This means Dikec can see more out of his regular eyeglasses than Yejin can in their respective shooting stances, which is probably why Dikec didn’t need shooting glasses.
Besides ear protection (which Dikec is actually wearing - if you watch videos of the match he has bright yellow earplugs in), no other gear is allowed in this event - shoes cannot go above the ankle, clothing cannot restrict movement. Most people wear some sort of flat-soled shoes, whatever clothing you wear literally doesn’t matter except to keep you warm/cool. This is in contrast to air rifle, where stiff clothing is allowed - competitors basically wear what looks like clunky armor (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Air-rifle-shooting.jpg), it’s hard to bend your knees in them and nearly impossible to squat. I used to train with those guys, I’d take the piss out of them by pretending to be nice and offering them some water, then putting it on the floor in front of them.
And before anyone mentions it, putting their hand in the pocket is the standard stance for air pistol shooting. Only one hand is allowed on the gun. And in a sport where your breathing and heart rate interferes with your accuracy, having one hand free means it might move around and cause micro movements to your body, so everyone puts their other hand in their jacket/pants pocket, or tucks the thumb in their waistband.
It does look badass though.
Source: I used to compete in ISSF 10m and 25m air pistol events like these (this is 10m)
FINAL EDIT: I just wanted to end by saying that Dikec (the Turkish guy) may look cool and casual, and I enjoy all the “retired hitman rolls out of bed casually” memes just as much as everyone, but don’t let that diminish the decades of training and dedication he’s put into the sport. Dude has been competing for more than 20 years and first set a world record in a different shooting event in 2006. Shooting is one sport where age isn’t a big disadvantage.
Oh yeah, just act like the stuffed elephant tied to her finger isn’t an advantage…
/s
Illegal counterbalance.
I did look at the picture again, and those glasses seem a lot more custom then that guy explained.
Like, in something where eye sight is so important, corrective lens/surgery/contacts/whatever does seem like a super grey area.
Like, they could “dial it in” so her vision is perfect for the set range. And having adjustments be possible on the fly makes it seem that’s what they’re doing. 20/20 isn’t “perfect” it’s average. I got LASIK and right after mine was like 20/15 from being 20/200 or something ridiculous. How do you prove corrective lenses only bring them up to average eyesight? And it’s safe to assume people without them are better than 20/20, so should they be allowed to go as high as them?
And honestly, that elephant was just a joke the first time I saw it, but it’s tied tight around her finger.
That makes pulse a lot more noticeable, and controlling heart rate and breathing is also important here.
So like, she’s not cheating, she’s just going up exactly to the line. Which is why it makes the old dude more impressive
Eyesight is not the issue here - this isn’t an eye test. At 10m the target looks like a small circle, there isn’t any further detail to see. Air pistols can only have iron sights, so there are three things to look at while shooting: the rear sight, the front sight, and the target. If you’re focusing on the right thing (your sights), the target will be slightly out of focus anyway.
So yes, anyone with perfect eyesight can get lenses made, but it doesn’t help much. Back when I was shooting, the best guy on my team had like +0.75 in his shooting eye but he didn’t bother wearing corrective lens while shooting. That said, I was a teenager so standards were different - maybe you do need perfect eyesight to compete at an Olympics level. But everyone can buy shooting glasses with corrective lens anyway.
The glasses are custom in the sense that nobody wears them outside of shooting because you look like a dork in them, but they can be bought off the shelf - this is the first result I found on Google, there are tons more:
https://buinger.com/Shooting-Glasses
The elephant… I’ve never seen it before, it’s probably light enough that it doesn’t work as a counterweight. But you don’t need that to judge your own heart rate. When your gun is lifted you can feel your own heartrate.
As for cheating… The real cheating occurs with stuff like heart medication to make your heartbeat slower, and beta blockers to reduce anxiety. A lot of shooting is a mental game. At a high enough level, nearly every shot needs to be a bullseye, so it’s about maintaining that consistent standard and not letting the occasional 9/10 shot creep into your head and affect the rest of your shots.
Air pistols can only have iron sights
Gee, maybe that’s why she’s wearing those crazy glasses in the picture…
It’s already been explained that the glasses cannot have magnification, so what advantage do you think they offer when looking through iron sights?
And also that theyre prescription…
And 20/20 isn’t “perfect” vision, it’s perfectly average.
So someone can get glasses to improve their vision (especially at a certain distance) to better than 20/20 and have an advantage.
While still not having magnification.
Do you think glasses that help you see further are working via magnification?
I think they are both rocking it!
Lady looking hard as hell in her posh jacket and hat, as she bullseyes with the professional acumen of a trained killer.
Dude looking like he rolled out of bed, on that daily grind, going to win a medal and then grab some coffee, kiss the wife, and mow the yard.
The definition of the two genders.
