Alexey Sobolev really made the most of his trip to Sochi.
Mike Blake / Reuters
The Sochi Winter Olympics might be over for Russia's Alexey Sobolev, but he won't be leaving Sochi without a few souvenirs. The 22-year-old snowboarder didn't qualify for yesterday's slopestyle finals after finishing 12th in the semifinals so he didn't have a chance for a medal.
But at least he had some fun -- Sobolev decided to print his cell phone number on his helmet during qualifications.
Predictably, he got bombarded with text messages -- to the point where it almost broke his iPhone. Sobolev received over 2,000 texts, some of encouragement from USA and Canada and others that were a tad more...salacious. He says he's received dozens of nude pictures in the past 24 hours.
As he told a USA Today reporter, "I've got a collection of pictures. It's really boring in the Olympic Village, you know?"
This isn't the first time Sobelev garnered national attention during the Olympics for something that has nothing to do with competing. He also made waves for his snowboard itself, which appears to be a tribute to Pussy Riot, the dissident Russian punk collective known for performing in ski masks.
For those who reached out to the snowboarder, Sobelev admitted he plans on giving some of his new fans a call.