Phone goes flying out of skier's pocket in the middle of run at Olympics
Haipeng Sheng might not have won a medal at the Winter Olympics, but he’s found a way to make it memorable either way.
The Chinese freestyle skier was competing in the halfpipe event this week at Milano Cortina 2026, with the event taking place in the town of Livigno.
At just age 20, simply making it to such a big stage like the Olympics would’ve been an accomplishment by itself.
But when he took to the halfpipe for his second event in the qualifying portion on Friday, he ended up going viral for a different reason than he was probably hoping for.
Launching himself into the air mid-trick, his cellphone suddenly came absolutely flying out of his pocket, and landing amidst the halfpipe, before a course official eventually returned it to him.
Screenshot via CBC
If you’d like to see the video yourself, it happens at the 1:47:50 mark of the replay on CBC Gem.
With a high score of 54.75 across his two runs, he didn’t make it through to the top 12 of 25 skiers competing on the day that made it through to the final.
Why would an Olympian have their phone on them?
Much like a runner might have it on them during a marathon (or even a stroll around the neighbourhood), a phone is used for Olympians for one purpose in particular: to help them play some calming music to get them in the mood to compete.
As much fun as it would be to imagine a skier taking selfies while launching themselves off the halfpipe, it is much more likely he was simply getting fired up to compete before his phone went flying off on its own accord. But in a lesson he’ll be sure to remember for next time, pockets have zippers on them for a reason.