The Real Olympic Champion: How ‘Samsung Athletes’ Took Home the Most Gold Medals

Samsung’s “Olympic Athletes” Take Home the Most Medals

Time flies, and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games officially came to a close on August 11th. Following the medal events, the Olympic athletes will return home, all with a brand new phone in hand.

According to TechRadar, aside from the athletes who brought victory to their nations, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 itself was a “medal-winning athlete” for Samsung.

Similar to previous Olympic Games, Samsung, as an official sponsor, gifted each Olympic athlete a special edition of their newest foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 Olympic Edition. This limited edition device had a run of approximately 17,000 units.

You might have seen the unboxing of this device on social media, especially on the Olympic TikTok. If you followed the games, aside from the athletes’ stellar performances, there was one common denominator among all the bronze, silver, and gold medalists: taking victory selfies with the small, yellow, square-shaped Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6.

In a recent statement, Samsung revealed that sales of the Galaxy Z Flip 6 smartphones had increased thanks to the winning athletes taking selfies with the device on the podium.

Among them, North and South Korean table tennis players used the Galaxy Z Flip 6 to capture a historic selfie after winning silver and bronze in the mixed doubles event, respectively.

Another notable photo was that of Olympic gymnastics star Simone Biles and the rest of the US team taking a selfie with Samsung’s flip phone after winning gold in the women’s team all-around event.

Sales Surge

These unique Olympic moments are believed to have caused a surge in sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 6 smartphone, a device that was relatively unknown to consumers before the 2024 Games.

According to Campaign Magazine, Samsung reported a 23% increase in Galaxy Flip 6 sales on July 30th, compared to the pre-Olympic average.

The company attributed this spike in interest to the success of Team GB, who won six medals the day before.

In reality, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 Olympic Edition isn’t that different from the regular model, featuring a yellow color scheme and some Olympic and Paralympic logo designs on the back.

On the device, athletes also had access to pre-loaded apps that were useful during their stay in the Olympic Village. It featured a new boot screen with a special message from Samsung to the athletes. Aside from that, all hardware specifications remained the same as the regular Galaxy Z Flip 6.

In an article by The Independent about the success of the Galaxy Flip 6 post-Olympics, Samsung expressed their amazement at the phone’s performance, stating that more people are now considering their foldable phones thanks to the global sporting event.

However, there was some controversy surrounding Samsung’s gifting of the phones to the athletes. South Korean officials recently announced that providing Samsung smartphones to North Korean athletes at the Paris Olympics would violate UN Security Council sanctions.

The International Olympic Committee confirmed that the phones had been sent to the Olympic Village, but the North Korean athletes had not received them. It is unclear what happened to the phones.

According to AP, a similar issue arose during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, where North Korea refused to accept Samsung devices when the organizing committee stipulated that they must be returned before the delegation left the country.