Why Olympic Athletes aren't Using iPhones to Take Podium Selfies

If you’re confused about athletes taking selfies on the medal podium at the Olympic Games, all with the same odd-looking smartphone, you’re not alone.

It’s something that has got many viewers wondering what’s going on. An official hands a mysterious device to one of the medal winners, often to their surprise, so they can take a ‘Victory Selfie’ of the gold, silver and bronze placing athletes.

It’s the first time this has happened in Olympic history… but why? And what is that tiny square phone they are using?

Well, to answer the second question, it’s the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

It doesn’t look like a normal smartphone as it’s one of the firm’s latest foldable smartphones. The athletes have been using it in the closed position and for good reason.

Although there’s a screen inside, an additional ‘cover screen’ on one half of the outer casing can show you a live preview of your photo (see above). As this sits next to the main cameras, you get a better quality picture than using the internal camera – it’s 50Mp compared to 10Mp.

It’s a nifty feature and one of many reasons to get a foldable smartphone over the regular candy bar design we’ve become accustomed to.

The answer to why is simple – it’s essentially product placement.

In part, it’s because athletes aren’t typically allowed personal belongings on the field (or equivalent) to take any photos.

If they were, then you’d imagine a lot of iPhones would be whipped out of pockets to capture these moments. However, this year (as usual) Samsung is a major sponsor of the games and is using it as an opportunity to promote its latest device.

“The Victory Selfies are offered during medal ceremonies for individual medallists and teams of no more than two athletes, with each of the medallists briefed on how and when to capture their images on the phones provided by Samsung.” said the International Olympic Committee.

The Victory Selfies are mapped and sorted by sport before uploading them to a cloud service called Athlete365 where athletes can save and share them on social media.

Added to the equation is that, like some previous Olympics, all athletes have been given a special Olympic Edition of the Galaxy Z Flip 6.

It’s gold, of course, and has logos on the back including the iconic Olympic rings and you may have seen many using them during the opening ceremony where teams were introduced while on boats sailing down the river Seine.

Samsung has also loaded it with an eSIM including 100GB 5G data, an unlimited complimentary public transport access card, and several official Olympic apps.

Of course, you can’t buy this edition (unless you perhaps find some ending up on eBay soon) but the Galaxy Z Flip 6 is available now from £1,049/$1,099.