An Olympian is selling an exclusive Samsung phone gifted at the Winter Olympics 2026. Why do athletes sell such memorabilia?
One of the athletes from the ongoing Winter Olympics 2026 is already auctioning his/her Samsung phone, which is being given by the company to the participants as a souvenir for taking part in the quadrennial event. Samsung Electronics is giving away the phone as part of its partnership withthe Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The phones, which have been exclusively designed for the participants of the Milano Cortina 2026 Games, are being given away to 3,800 Olympians and Paralympians from across 90 countries. These exclusive phones are especially made for the Olympics. They have a unique Olympics logo design and come with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Interestingly, these phones are not available in the retail market.
Olympic phone sold on eBay
But one of the athletes is selling it on eBay.
A listing on the eBay website shows that an Olympian has listed the phone for bidding and the price has already risen to $1,200 (Rs 1.10 lakh approximately). One can skip the bidding and buy the phone immediately at $1,680 (Rs 1.53 lakh approximately).
The regular version of the Galaxy Z Flip7 is available for $1,099.99 (Rs 1 lakh) in the USA, but it doesn’t have the special Olympic logo.
It must be noted that the eBay user has wrongly listed the phone as Galaxy Z Fold 3, which is not true. Also, no Olympic rule disallows the athletes from selling the phones they receive at the Games.
A similar thing happened after the Paris Olympics 2024, as multiple athletes sold their Galaxy Z Flip 6 on eBay.
Why do Olympic athletes sell special Samsung phones?
One may ask, why?
There could be two most obvious reasons. Either the athlete is really not a Samsung person and prefers Apple, or they need financial assistance in their careers. There’s a high chance the second reasoning is most accurate, as a majority of athletes have to self-finance their careers due to a lack of sponsors and government support.
Only a handful of athletes in the world have sponsors, and unlike India and other Asian countries, government support is not that common in the USA or other European countries.
While an Olympics memorabilia is a special thing, nothing can replace the lived experience and the ambition to be at another Games. And for that, paying a small price by selling a souvenir is no big thing.
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