Olympians received exclusive phones. A dozen or so days later they put them up for sale

After checking in at the Olympic Village, participants of the 2026 Winter Olympics Milan-Cortina received an exclusive phone model from Samsung that cannot be purchased in a regular store. The distinction was awarded to almost 3.8 thousand people from approximately 90 countries, both able-bodied athletes and Paralympic athletes. The only exception were the Russians – described the website spidersweb.pl.

Several days after the distribution of welcome packages from one of the event sponsors, the devices began to appear on sales websites in many countries. On eBay, you can pay between PLN 900,000 and PLN 1,250,000 for a smartphone. euro. Many of the units are still factory sealed, which means the athletes haven’t even taken the phones out of the box. On the Polish OLX, one of the versions of the device is available for PLN 3,000. zloty.

Samsung gave the Olympic athletes unique phones. You can buy them for that much

However, the Olympians were not to sign any loyalty agreements, so they can do whatever they want with the smartphone, including selling it. The instalki.pl website noted that the situation is not new, as it was similar during the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. Z Flip models from this period are still available online. They can be purchased on Polish auction sites for PLN 2,500. zloty.

Phones for athletes have been personalized just for them. They received, among others: free connectivity in the form of 100 GB of 5G eSIM internet, or access to digital passes integrated with the Samsung Wallet, which was intended to make it easier to move around the Olympic facilities. The Galaxy Athlete Card application was intended to be used to establish contacts between other ZIO participants. Samsung nevertheless announced that athletes will also receive support in Los Angeles.