Inside the cyberpunk world of Olympic shooters

Our social media feeds this week have been, as predicted, flooded with content about the Olympic Games of Paris 2024. And no sport has received as much attention as the broad category of shooting. Usually a niche sport aimed at a small number of enthusiasts and useful for inflating the medal tally of some nations, at Paris 2024 the shooters have become absolute stars thanks to their cyberpunk outfits and their unique personalities capable of handling palpable tension even from the television. It is difficult to match the level of aura of Kim Ye-ji, the South Korean shooter who appeared on the 10-meter air pistol platform wearing an all-black FILA jumpsuit, a backwards visor cap, and a plush elephant hanging from her pants while holding the gun as if she were in a manga. But the most fascinating aspect of these disciplines has undoubtedly been the suit worn by the shooters with rifles, which seems to have come from a future that perhaps we do not want to see.

Running has special sole shoes. Sprinters use increasingly innovative track materials. Swimming had polyurethane suits before they were banned. In every Olympic discipline, technology plays a fundamental role, it is the tool that pushes the limits of each sport a little further, forcing athletes to embrace evolution if they want to reach and then surpass that limit. This also applies to shooting, a sport that we rediscover every four years at the Olympic Games and that in this edition of Paris 24 has taken the stage for the aesthetics of the equipment worn by the athletes. Garments that, in terms of colors, models, and materials, seem to have come from science fiction films and instead represent the latest discovery in technology applied to sports.

It is important to note that this is not a completely new phenomenon. In Italy, for example, we had a taste of it between 2012 and 2016 when Niccolò Campriani won four medals, including three golds, in London and Rio de Janeiro. More generally, this type of equipment has always been an integral part of this sport, but in Paris we are witnessing its latest development. In detail, we are talking about leather suits that at first glance may resemble the protective ones used by motorcyclists. In reality, these are equipment that aims to stabilize the upper body as much as possible. The ultimate goal of every shooter is in fact to remain still after each shot, transferring all the tension to their feet and avoiding movement in the upper body. From this need, the idea of a heavier jacket developed, capable of locking the upper body of the shooters through a series of zippers and buttons similar to bolts that only open and close with a special tool. This structure limits natural movements, such as walking, but at the same time perfectly meets the needs of the athletes: the fitting example in this sense is the insertion of rubber layers at the elbows and knees to reduce friction for all those shooters who do not shoot while standing.

The leading company in this sector is the Indian Capapie Sports based in Thane. The founder is Nilesh Rane, an entrepreneur with a background in shooting who in 1997 had the first custom-made jacket made and from that prototype has come to own the most important brand in shooting sports. The turning point came in 2016 with the creation of Capitex, a mixture of synthetic fabric capable of providing greater rigidity than any other product on the market. Rane has stated that according to his calculations, in Tokyo in 2021 70% of shooters were wearing a Capapie suit and that this percentage has risen to 90% in Paris. It is not an exaggeration, the numbers confirm this feeling: the first two gold medals of Paris 2024 went to Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao, two Chinese shooters wearing Capapie, and the entire podium of the 10-meter air rifle shooting event was made up of athletes wearing Capapie jackets. The single fashion item that will forever be associated with the Paris24 Olympics.

But not all shooters have decided to enter this cyberpunk-like future of canvas suits, soundproof headphones, and lenses with built-in sights. Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikeç, for example, has gone around the world thanks to photos of him winning the silver medal in the 10m mixed pistol event wearing only a cotton t-shirt and rectangular glasses like a family man. But the touch that has excited the web the most is the hand that does not hold the gun, but is instead tucked into the pocket of his pants. Dikeç, in profile while shooting towards his first Olympic medal, is truly the standard-bearer for those who still want to dream of Olympic glory while remaining true to their position on the couch in front of the television.