--- title: Pokemon Go: Olympian Kohei Uchimura Racks Up $5000 Playing description: How far would you go to catch them all? For Olympic gymnast Kohei Uchimura, the hyper-popular app cost him nearly $5,000 in Brazil. canonical: https://time.com/4437480/pokemon-go-rio-kohei-uchimura/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-03T19:45:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:03.268Z og:title: Olympic Gymnast Accidentally Spends $5K on Pokémon Go in Brazil og:description: Catching them all comes at a steep price. og:url: https://time.com/4437480/pokemon-go-rio-kohei-uchimura/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt335c462e2be0bf22/6988a102ab6d770b2e6aac88/olympic-athlete-rio-pokemon-go.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: GYMNASTICS-OLY-2016-RIO og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Olympic Gymnast Accidentally Spends $5K on Pokémon Go in Brazil twitter:description: Catching them all comes at a steep price. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt335c462e2be0bf22/6988a102ab6d770b2e6aac88/olympic-athlete-rio-pokemon-go.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Olympic Gymnast Accidentally Spends $5K on Pokémon Go in Brazil > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 3, 2016 7:45 PM UTC  Japan's Kohei Uchimura smiles during a practice session of the men's Artistic gymnastics at the Olympic Arena on August 3, 2016 ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. / AFP / Thomas COEX (Photo credit should read THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images) Japan's Kohei Uchimura smiles during a practice session of the men's Artistic gymnastics at the Olympic Arena on August 3, 2016 ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. / AFP / Thomas COEX (Photo credit should read THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images) THOMAS COEX—AFP/Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 3, 2016 7:45 PM UTC How far would you go to catch them all? For [Japanese Olympic gymnast Kohei Uchimura](http://time.com/4435148/how-watch-olympics-2016/), who, like many others, is infatuated with [Pokémon Go](http://time.com/4401084/pokemon-go-how-play-guide-tips/), the hyper-popular app cost him nearly $5,000 in Brazil. The reigning Olympic gold medalist and six-time world champion told [_Kyodo News_](http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2016/08/424110.html) that he racked up a 500,000 yen (about $5,000) charge for his roaming data bill after playing the game since his arrival in [Sao Paulo, Brazil](http://time.com/4420009/why-massive-zika-spread-is-unlikely-at-the-olympics/). The athlete said that he downloaded the app when he arrived in Brazil for the pre-Olympic training camp and quickly became addicted to it — all while under the impression he had a flat rate for overseas data usage. When Uchimura found out, however, he was less than enthused. His teammate Kenzo Shirai noted, “He looked dead at the team meal that day.” Luckily, however, Uchimura’s phone company spared him the enormous expense and he’ll instead be paying the daily flat rate of about 3,000 yen (about $30). “I really lucked out,” he concluded. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4437480/pokemon-go-rio-kohei-uchimura/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4437480/pokemon-go-rio-kohei-uchimura/"},"headline":"Olympic Gymnast Accidentally Spends $5K on Pokémon Go in Brazil","datePublished":"2016-08-03T19:45:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:03.268Z","description":"Catching them all comes at a steep price","url":"https://time.com/4437480/pokemon-go-rio-kohei-uchimura/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet","viral","entertainment","Summer Olympics","2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics","pokemon go","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt335c462e2be0bf22/6988a102ab6d770b2e6aac88/olympic-athlete-rio-pokemon-go.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt335c462e2be0bf22/6988a102ab6d770b2e6aac88/olympic-athlete-rio-pokemon-go.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GYMNASTICS-OLY-2016-RIO","caption":"GYMNASTICS-OLY-2016-RIO","creditText":"THOMAS COEX—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4437480/pokemon-go-rio-kohei-uchimura/","name":"Olympic Gymnast Accidentally Spends $5K on Pokémon Go in Brazil"}}]}] ```