Meet viral Olympics shooter, who was praised by Elon Musk and now bags movie role with Anushka Sen as an…

Paris Olympics 2024 threw up plenty of social media sensations from Turkey’s Yusuf Dikec to ‘Clark Kent’ lookalike gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik. One of those viral social media sensation from Paris last month was South Korea pistol shooter Kim Yeji – who went viral as one of the ‘coolest’ shooters in this year’s Olympics.

The 32-year-old shooter took silver in the women’s 10m air pistol in July and ‘uber cool’ and ultra-calm demeanour, combined with her wire-rimmed shooting glasses and baseball cap, turned her into an internet sensation. With videos of Kim soon going viral, she drew praise even from owner of social media ‘X’ platform and billionaire Elon Musk.

“She should be cast in an action movie. No acting required!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X at the time.

 

Kim Yeji For Vogue Korea (2024) pic.twitter.com/veTFOSHqKv

— ₕₐₘₚₜₒₙ — e/acc (@Hamptonism) September 20, 2024

Barely a month after the Paris Olympics 2024, Kim Yeji is set to play an an assassin in ‘Crush’, a spinoff short-form series of the global film project ‘Asia’, a spokesperson for Seoul-based entertainment firm Asia Lab told AFP news agency.

Kim will star alongside Indian actress and influencer Anushka Sen, the company said in a separate statement, saying it was excited to witness ‘the potential synergy that will arise from Kim Yeji and Anushka Sen’s new transformation into a killer duo’.

Since winning silver, a short clip showing Kim at the Baku World Cup in May has gone viral. Kim signed with a South Korean talent agency in August to assist her in managing her extracurricular activities and she has since been featured in a magazine photoshoot for Louis Vuitton.

Who is Kim Yeji?

Kim was born in Danyang in South Korea and started shooting in the sixth grade in school and turned out for her first ISSF World Shooting Championships in 2010 – some 14 years back, when she was just 18 years of age.

She achieved the world record in the 25m women air pistol event before winning the silver medal in the 10m event at the Paris Olympics 2024. Kim also won the gold medal in the ISSF Shooting World Cup 2024 in Baku in the women’s 25m air pistol event.

A lot of people around the world have dubbed her as the female ‘Terminator’ after thin-rimmed glasses and her backward caps videos went viral.