Olympic gymnast racked up $5K phone bill playing Pokemon GO

Pokemon GO wants you to be the very best, and Kohei Uchimura has taken that to heart at the 2016 Olympics.

One might think that the reigning men’s all-around Olympic champion in gymnastics might be focusing on getting ready for this year’s Olympics down in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That may very well be true, but Kohei Uchimura has also apparently found the time to play the mind-bendingly popular mobile game Pokemon GO.

He has played it so much that he has reportedly received a 500,000 yen bill from his phone carrier. A quick run through Google’s currency converter says that comes out to around $4,939 in US dollars. That comes from roaming data charges since Pokemon GO constantly pings your location to determine which Pokemon you can catch.

However, the report also states that Uchimura has been granted a special 3,000 yen/$30 USD daily contract, which comes with unlimited data. The modern Olympic Games last 16 days and start on August 5. That means there is a total of 19 days before the closing ceremonies as of this writing.

So, should Uchimura take this plan, he’ll pay 57,000 yen/roughly $563 for today until the closing ceremonies, which is way, way less terrifying than the above phone bill. From the above report, it seems that the rest of his bill will also be put on that schedule, but what’s a few extra thousand yen when faced with the prospect of having to pay 500,000 yen instead?

According to NBC’s official Olympics schedule, the men’s gymnastics competition will start with qualifying rounds on Saturday, August 6. Uchimura is expected to make a run for a second gold medal in the all-around competition, based on his six all-around world championships and nine Japanese national championships.

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