The Internet’s Favorite Olympians – The New York Times

At the Olympic Games, there are the athletes who are rewarded with medals. And then there are the athletes who, for whatever reasons, find themselves rewarded with online love.

Here’s a roundup of the stars of the Games, at least according to the internet.

The Women’s Rugby Player Who Recruited an N.F.L. Star

Before the Games began, the American women’s rugby sevens team already had a social media sensation: Ilona Maher, who has 2 million followers on TikTok and 2.3 million on Instagram

After she jokingly asked the retired N.F.L. star Jason Kelce to be the team’s celebrity super fan, à la Flavor Flav’s sponsorship of the U.S. women’s water polo team, Kelce attended the team’s match against Australia wearing a Hawaiian shirt patterned with Maher’s face. The team secured a bronze medal, America’s first in the sport.

Much of Maher’s content promotes body positivity, as when she responded to a commenter who guessed her body mass index was 30, which would fall under the clinical definition of obese. Maher responded with a pointed burn.

“Yeah, I do have a BMI of 30,” she said in a TikTok video. “I am considered overweight. But, alas, I’m going to the Olympics and you’re not.”

The Sport Shooters-Turned-Action-Movie Stars

While the South Korean sport shooter Kim Yeji didn’t win the gold for the women’s 10-meter air pistol shooting event, she did win admiration for looking cool.

A clip of Kim stoically shooting at a competition in May spread exponentially online after her Olympic appearance, with posts citing her “aura,” current slang for an aspirational level of cool. One TikTok of the clip has 1.6 million likes.

Kim’s hand-in-pocket pose, the cyberpunk-looking lenses many shooters wear and her steely focus inspired fan art across social platforms.

During the men’s air pistol team event, the Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec stepped up with no specialized equipment and the same hand-in-pocket stance. He won silver, his country’s first medal in shooting.

Dikec, 51, has been photoshopped into scenes from “Pulp Fiction” as a hit man and pitted against Kim in an anime showdown.

He trended on X in Japan as “Free to Play Uncle,” a reference to the many “free” video games that promote micro-transactions. Meme-makers imagined Dikec as a player who refused to pay for flashy add-ons but won those games anyway.

His Job Is Pommel Horse

The American gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik has one job at the Games: pommel horse.

On Monday, Nedoroscik, 25, helped the U.S. team win the bronze, the men’s first gymnastics medal in 16 years, and became an online darling. Not just for his routine, though.

Memes pointed out his long wait on the sidelines, more than two hours as the rest of the competition unfolded. The image of Nedoroscik, leaning back with his eyes closed, waiting his turn, made the rounds and is likely to have viewers tuning in as he competes in the individual pommel horse event on Saturday.

He became a nerd hero to many, the bespectacled “Clark Kent” of the pommel horse. Fans were also delighted to find out that Nedoroscik graduated from Penn State with a degree in electrical engineering and that he times his attempts at solving a Rubik’s Cube.

The Proud (and Terrified) Families of U.S. Gymnasts

Though they’re not athletes, the parents of American gymnasts Jordan Chiles and Hezly Rivera have gained online love for supporting their daughters from the stands.

Gina and Timothy Chiles have been hanging on their daughter’s every move during competitions, loudly cheering her on. During her uneven bars routine, Timothy yelled for Chiles to “stick like butter” on the landing.

Rivera, 16, has an anxious fan in her father, Henry Rivera. He was so overwhelmed with emotion as he watched her compete in trials and later as he witnessed the announcement that she had qualified for the Games, that he kept burying his face in his arms, peeking out on occasion.

Henry wore a heart rate monitor that NBC broadcast as he watched Rivera’s final routine in the qualification round. A typical resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute. At one point, his hit 180.

The Norwegian Muffin Man

The 27-year-old Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen is at the Paris Games to compete in two freestyle races. But based on his TikTok account, Christiansen is mostly there for the chocolate muffins.