Olympic Gymnast Racks Up $5,000 Phone Bill Playing ‘Pokemon Go’ In Rio

by abournenesn

Aug 3, 2016

If you thought your “Pokemon Go” addiction was bad, then the story of what happened to an Olympic gymnast in Rio de Janeiro might make you feel a little better.

Japan’s Kohei Uchimura, who’s the favorite to win gold in the men’s all-around, apparently is a bit of a Pokemon fanatic, and that didn’t stop when he arrived at the athletes’ village ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics. But it did almost cost him nearly $5,000.

Uchimura somehow received a phone bill for 500,000 yen ($4,954), Kyodo news agency reported Tuesday. The game isn’t available in Brazil yet, meaning he couldn’t even catch any Pokemon for his troubles.

“He looked dead at the team meal that day,” teammate Kenzo Shirai said, according to Kyodo.

Uchimura won’t have to pay that bill, however, after working out a deal with his cell phone carrier for a 3,000 yen ($29.61) daily unlimited data contract.

“I really lucked out,” Uchimura said.

Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@kenzo8824

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