A day after Kim Ye-ji won a silver medal in the 10-meter air pistol event at the , she learned that the internet had decided she was the coolest shooter on the planet. Driving the sensation was a video of the 31-year-old South Korean casually setting a world record in May while wearing a black cap turned backward, sci-fi-esque shooting glasses and a pink elephant doll tied at her hip. The clip inspired fan art, video montages and a suggestion from on X that she should star in an action movie.
She was a heavy favorite for gold in the 25-meter event, but an error in the qualifying round — she failed to get her shot off in the required three-second window — cost her a trip to the finals. The Times spoke with Kim over Zoom from Paris about her sudden viral fame and the joys and frustrations of her Olympic debut. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m not very active on social media. I only have six or so posts on Instagram and I didn’t have a Twitter account, so I didn’t find out until much later. We were having a team dinner the day after my 10-meter final and my 25-meter pistol coach said, “Ye-ji, I saw you became a world star.
” Then someone said Elon Musk had given me a shout-out. After that, I started to make my way through all the posts and Instagram DMs. I have so many backed up right now because I’m a very slow typer.
There were a lot of messages saying that they learned a lot from me, that my mind-set gave them hope. And then others sayi.