When Kim Ye-ji first tried shooting at age 12 she could not lift the gun. Now, she is the world's most internet-famous Olympic shooter, thanks to her steel nerves -- and Elon Musk.
Kim, 32, won silver in the women's 10m air pistol at this summer's Paris Olympics and captured the internet's attention with her nonchalant cool. But she told AFP that she fell into her sport by accident.
When her middle school teacher asked for volunteers to try shooting, Kim did not raise her hand but was selected anyway. Despite being too small to hoist the pistol, she was hooked.
"I thought it looked cool," Kim, dressed in an oversized black suit and heels after a commercial photoshoot, told AFP at a shooting range in Seoul. Her visit to the venue prompted gasps of excitement from other young Koreans at the firing line.
Her parents strongly opposed her taking up shooting, but "for three days, I didn't eat and just cried, begging to be allowed," Kim said. Eventually, they relented.
"I didn't have a clear goal when it came to my studies. But with shooting... I knew I had to be the best," she said.
She has dedicated her life to shooting ever since. In Paris, she said she had a "single goal -- winning a medal."
She was not using social media at the time, viewing it as "toxic" and a distraction from training, so she was initially unaware when videos of her shooting started going viral.
At a photo session with other medalists in Paris, where journalists told her she had "a lot of Brazilian fans" and asked her to greet them in Portuguese, she started to realise something had happened.
"I didn't think of myself as special, and I still don't," she told AFP.
"There are many other medalists with lots of fans, and I just see myself as one of them."
The video that launched Kim to stardom shows her in an all-black uniform, a backwards baseball cap and wire-rimmed shooting glasses while taking aim and firing. After breaking the world record she barely reacts, glancing at her score calmly as the crowd applauds.
The clip, which was actually taken from a competition in May 2024, triggered an internet frenzy, with people hailing her "main character" energy, and Elon Musk calling for her to be cast in an action movie, "no acting required".
Videos of her Olympic performance quickly went viral, but the preternatural calm which captivated the internet's attention is simply how she shoots, she said.
"I wasn't initially good at concentrating," she said, but she was advised to keep her gaze ultra-focused at the firing line.
She found this "helped me concentrate, and to calm my nerves".
She said she is a "naturally restless person", but when she shoots "my arm is not just my arm anymore; it's all part of the gun".
"When holding the gun, everything must be perfectly fixed in place. Nothing should move -- wrist, hand, or any other part. I think of it all as part of the gun."
When Kim returned to South Korea after the Olympics, she was inundated with interview requests, invited to model for brands like Louis Vuitton, and even appear in a short movie -- as an assassin -- with Indian actress Anushka Sen.
She says she is "grateful and happy" for the attention, particularly as it has boosted interest in the sport she loves, and that her family has helped her stay humble.
"My father told me: 'I think people are overreacting a bit when you just won silver'", she says laughing, adding that her six-year-old daughter also likes to cheekily point out her mum "didn't win gold".
Kim says she sees no conflict between her life as an elite shooter and a fledgling celebrity. She still trains five days a week, fitting in photo shoots and interviews in her spare time.
She is now focused on winning gold at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and believes she is only just hitting her sporting prime.
"In terms of shooting, it's less about age and more about individual skill," she said, plus preparation and effort.
"This year and last have been my best seasons, and if I continue to work hard, I think I'll keep performing well," she said, adding that she hopes to compete until she is 50 years old.
Since the viral videos, "people refer to me as 'shooter Kim Ye-ji' rather than just 'Kim Ye-ji'", she said.
"I want to continue my work so that the word 'shooter' will always be remembered."
