The Olympic Games Paris 2024 kicked off with the opening ceremony last Friday bringing together the world's top athletes to compete for Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals.
For the eagle-eyed amongst you, you may have spotted athletes taking a celebratory selfie after receiving medals during the official medal ceremony. The camera used was not one I recognized and seemed to be an unusual square shape, after delving a little deeper I found out it was not one of the best mirrorless cameras on the market, but a Samsung camera phone.
Winning an Olympic medal is a life-changing achievement for any athlete, and this year's Olympic games have relaxed the typically strict social media rules and enabled winners to take advantage by taking a celebratory selfie to immortalize the moment for the first time ever.
Although the social media rules have been relaxed, athletes are still not allowed to take their personal phones into the arena during events. Hence, the camera used is an official Olympic camera, and it's not even a camera but a phone – the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6.
The Samsung flippable clamshell phone was released just this month and features a larger regular screen when opened, however, on the front, there’s a convenient 3.4-inch 'Flex Window' that enables users to access widgets, apps, and – more importantly in this case – take photos without flipping open the phone. This enables incredible selfies from the main 50MP camera (which replaces the previous Flip5's 12MP offering).
The official Olympic Games website states, "All the medallists concerned will be briefed on the Victory Selfie before the ceremony, including how and when to take the picture, using the phone provided by Worldwide Olympic Partner Samsung. Victory Selfies are available to download from Athlete365 and can be used to celebrate the moment on social media."
As Samsung is an official partner of this year's games, each competing athlete in the Olympic and Paralympics Games received a special edition Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6, adorned with Olympic rings, a unique colorway, and a message of congratulations – a very nice touch by Samsung!
You may also be interested in our guides to the best camera phone, best selfie cameras, and the best camera for vlogging.
