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One of the stars of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, at least as far as social media is concerned, has been South Korean sharpshooter Kim Ye-ji.
Ye-ji, competing in the Olympics for the first time, has been going massively viral for the badassness of her stance, outfits, and general demeanor while competing. Back in my day, they used to call it “swag” — nowadays it’s called “aura.” Regardless of the semantics, though, it’s clear that Ye-ji has the *it*, whatever *it* is.
One tweet from the account Women Posting W’s with two photos of Ye-ji and the caption “I can’t get over this” has racked up over 262,000 likes and 11 million views. Ye-ji was reportedly born in Danyang, South Korea, and is 31 years old.
While Ye-ji did compete and win a silver medal in 10m Air Pistol Women at the 2024 Olympic Games, there’s a bit of confusion about Ye-ji on Twitter, however, as many of the viral videos and photos of her are actually from an ISSF (International Shooting Sport Federation) event in Azerbaijan earlier this year.
i need to talk about her, pic.twitter.com/RgZNyzJgFN
— regular meghan 나영지 🫧 (@ruemcclammyhand) July 29, 2024
This girl is a movie character like how is she real pic.twitter.com/hys1bLyj4t
— Daniel (@growing_daniel) July 30, 2024
“Hideo Kojima will be on a Zoom call with her within 30 days,” joked one viral tweet with over 62,000 likes, as the famed video game director is known for his, uh, appreciation of beautiful women and penchant for video game characters with mechanical enhancements that look similar to Ye-ji’s
Another viral aspect of Ye-ji’s Olympic appearance is that she had her daughter’s stuffed elephant hanging from her belt while she was competing.
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With a silver medal already around her neck, Kim Ye-ji is also set to compete in the Women’s 25 Pistol qualification round scheduled to take place Friday, August 2 at 3 a.m. EST.
As of this writing — six days into the 2024 Olympics on Tuesday, July 30 — Ye-ji’s South Korea is fifth in the Olympics standings with five golds, three silvers (one of which is Ye-ji’s), and three bronze for a total of 11. While the United States has 20 medals so far, only three of them are gold, putting them sixth in the standings behind Japan, China, France, Australia, and Korea.