South Korea’s record-breaking Olympic shooter -Kim Yeji.
Oh yeah, just act like the stuffed elephant tied to her finger isn’t an advantage…
/s
I did look at the picture again, and those glasses seem a lot more custom then that guy explained.
Like, in something where eye sight is so important, corrective lens/surgery/contacts/whatever does seem like a super grey area.
Like, they could “dial it in” so her vision is perfect for the set range. And having adjustments be possible on the fly makes it seem that’s what they’re doing. 20/20 isn’t “perfect” it’s average. I got LASIK and right after mine was like 20/15 from being 20/200 or something ridiculous. How do you prove corrective lenses only bring them up to average eyesight? And it’s safe to assume people without them are better than 20/20, so should they be allowed to go as high as them?
And honestly, that elephant was just a joke the first time I saw it, but it’s tied tight around her finger.
That makes pulse a lot more noticeable, and controlling heart rate and breathing is also important here.
So like, she’s not cheating, she’s just going up exactly to the line. Which is why it makes the old dude more impressive
Eyesight is not the issue here - this isn’t an eye test. At 10m the target looks like a small circle, there isn’t any further detail to see. Air pistols can only have iron sights, so there are three things to look at while shooting: the rear sight, the front sight, and the target. If you’re focusing on the right thing (your sights), the target will be slightly out of focus anyway.
So yes, anyone with perfect eyesight can get lenses made, but it doesn’t help much. Back when I was shooting, the best guy on my team had like +0.75 in his shooting eye but he didn’t bother wearing corrective lens while shooting. That said, I was a teenager so standards were different - maybe you do need perfect eyesight to compete at an Olympics level. But everyone can buy shooting glasses with corrective lens anyway.
The glasses are custom in the sense that nobody wears them outside of shooting because you look like a dork in them, but they can be bought off the shelf - this is the first result I found on Google, there are tons more:
https://buinger.com/Shooting-Glasses
The elephant… I’ve never seen it before, it’s probably light enough that it doesn’t work as a counterweight. But you don’t need that to judge your own heart rate. When your gun is lifted you can feel your own heartrate.
As for cheating… The real cheating occurs with stuff like heart medication to make your heartbeat slower, and beta blockers to reduce anxiety. A lot of shooting is a mental game. At a high enough level, nearly every shot needs to be a bullseye, so it’s about maintaining that consistent standard and not letting the occasional 9/10 shot creep into your head and affect the rest of your shots.
I have had some involvement in very similar rifle shooting and there is obviously crossovers with pistol shooting. Honestly the fact that you consider those glasses a “gray area” of cheating made me snort laugh. No one in that sport would consider that even close to cheating. Full stop. I’m not trying to be rude but you clearly know nothing about this sport. Those glasses are ubiquitous in many types of competitive shooting at this level especially air pistol/rifle.
In fact if you think this is cheating you need to see what rifle shooters wear because those rules allow way more gear (including your “grey area” glasses).
Also you don’t need something tied to your finger to feel your heart rate…You can clearly see your heart rate in your sights (yes, even irons).It could be a counter balance if it was measured perfectly but that’s risky because if her stance changed at all it could pull her off. I’m honestly surprised her coaches let her risk having that thing at all. It looks like a liability to me.
Edit: I just went back and looked a d there’s no way that things a counter weight. It would need to be close to the weight of that pistol to be helpful. Air pistols are light but they aren’t “stuffy” light.
