Italian swim star drops his phone in the POOL on the way to pick up his gold medal at European Championships

Teenagers love their phones but are famous for losing them, as one European swimming champ proved last week - when his mobile sank to the bottom of a pool. 

Italian Filippo Pelati, who's just 16, was on his way to the gold medal podium at the European Junior Artistic Swimming Championships in Portugal - when his moment of glory was disrupted by his phone plunging to the pool floor. 

European Aquatics organisation LEN shared the moment Pelati's phone slipped out of his tracksuit pocket, just as he was heading for the number one spot. 

They quipped: 'Zip up your pocket next time, Filippo!'

The video begins with the teen swimmer walking casually by the side of the pool, with the blink-and-you'll-miss it moment showing his phone freefalling from his pocket - it then bounces off his own foot into the water.

While his fellow swimmers looked on in horror, the cool-as-a-cucumber Italian simply shrugged, offered a thumb's up and carried on with the medal ceremony.

When the congratulations were finally over at the event on the Portuguese island of Madeira, he was handed the soggy appliance by a kind co-competitor who dived in and rescued it. 

After coming first in his event at the European Junior Artistic Swimming Championships in Portugal last week, Italian teen Filippo Pelati made his way to the podium to pick up his gold medal...before disaster struck...

His co-competitors looked on in horror as the teen swimming champ appeared to kick his own phone into the pool

After taking a moment to check it, it appears Pelati's phone was still working, despite its watery adventure. 

On Instagram, those who watched the clip tried to work out what had happened.

One wrote: 'Phone escaped his pocket and he kicked it while walking, look closely before he does that funny face!' 

A co-competitor in swimwear headed to the bottom of the pool to reunite the teen with his phone

And after a quick check, it seems the mobile device was still working fine...

Another added: 'What's funnier to me is, you will know for a fact which country the athlete who dropped his phone came from just by his reaction and hand gesture.'

While one viewer commented: 'The expressions he makes are too cute!' 

According to Swim England, artistic swimming is creative performance in the pool, essentially. 

A description on the organisation's website reads: 'Can you imagine running for up to five minutes while performing acrobatics, holding your breath, looking graceful, and having to keep in time to the music? That’s artistic swimming!'