$5,000 Pokémon phone bill spoils Japanese gymnast’s stint in Rio

Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura, who is among the athletes proudly representing his country at the 2016 Rio Olympics, was disheartened upon seeing his “ludicrous” phone bill.

Uchimura, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, found out that his roaming charges spiked up after he tried to play Pokémon Go upon arriving in Sao Paulo for the games. His data roaming charges had piled up to 500,000 yen (US$5,000 or P232,000) while playing Pokémon Go around the streets of Brazil, Kyodo News reported. He was unaware that the smash-hit mobile game is not available in the country.

“He looked dead at the team meal that day,” teammate Kenzo Shirai was quoted as saying.

To spare himself from outrageously high charges, Uchimura, 27, pleaded to his network carrier to lessen the charges. With a kind heart, his wireless carrier decided to charge him only 3,000 yen (P1,393) per day and aborted his extra fees.

“I really lucked out,” Uchimura told Kyodo News.

Many athletes were disappointed after discovering that the popular game is unavailable in the country, Huffington Post reported.