Jamaine Punzalan

Philippines' Enrico Pfister (C) curls a stone during the mens curling round robin group A session 5 between the Philippines and Kazakhstan during the Harbin 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang province on February 10, 2025. Jade Gao, AFP

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1739163344591curl runnings.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Philippines&#x27; Enrico Pfister (C) curls a stone during the mens curling round robin group A session 5 between the Philippines and Kazakhstan during the Harbin 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, northeast China&#x27;s Heilongjiang province on February 10, 2025. Jade Gao, AFP </span></span></span></div><p>A banker, a construction worker, an electrician and an entrepreneur from snowy Switzerland have an unlikely shot at making Winter Olympics curling history -- for the tropical Philippines.</p><p>Jamaica&#x27;s bobsleigh team were immortalized in the movie &quot;Cool Runnings&quot; after taking part in the 1988 Winter Olympics.</p><p>And the &quot;Curling Pilipinas&quot; could be the next candidates for the Hollywood treatment, should they line up at Milan-Cortina in 2026.</p><p>The Swiss-Filipino men&#x27;s quartet are this week gaining invaluable experience at the Asian Winter Games in China, their biggest stage yet.</p><p>Just two years after the launch of the country&#x27;s curling federation, the men&#x27;s team -- who were all born in Switzerland to Filipino mothers -- have already secured a place at 2026 Olympic pre-qualifiers later this year.</p><div><a href="http://Asian Winter Games: PH mixed curling team winds up in 4th place">Asian Winter Games: PH mixed curling team winds up in 4th place</a></div><p>Unlike their full-time competitors from Asian winter sports powerhouses South Korea, Japan and China, the Philippines team members still work their day jobs.</p><p>&quot;We are fully committed, but the money is always tight,&quot; said lead Alan Frei. &quot;But it&#x27;s for the plot, it&#x27;s for the story, right?&quot;</p><p>Frei has spent around 30,000 euros ($31,000) on the team, who were largely self-funded before the Asian Winter Games, according to Philippines curling federation president Benjo Delarmente, who is also the squad&#x27;s reserve player.</p><p>The Philippines are not intimidated going up against the best because of the team&#x27;s top-tier chemistry, Frei told AFP during practice at the Harbin Pingfang District Curling Arena.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;IT&#x27;S ALWAYS FUNNY&#x27; </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>&quot;It&#x27;s just a great team dynamic,&quot; said Frei, who describes himself as an &quot;E-commerce entrepreneur&quot; whose online ventures have in the past included a sex toy store.</p><p>&quot;We love hanging out with each other. It&#x27;s always funny, we are cracking jokes. So that&#x27;s our big advantage.&quot;</p><p>They also have experience in their ranks.</p><p>The other three members -- electrician Enrico Pfister, his brother and construction worker Marc Pfister and banker Christian Haller -- have previously competed for Switzerland in world championships.</p><p>A few years ago the trio decided to form a Philippines team, but needed a fourth member.</p><p>They contacted rookie curler Frei, 42, who had made it his life goal to become an Olympian and had only taken up the sport after realizing he had &quot;zero talent&quot; for skiing.</p><p>By October 2023 they were competing and the rest could be history.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;PERFECT SPORT FOR FILIPINOS&#x27;<br/></strong></div><div><br/></div><p>With temperatures in host city Harbin struggling to get above freezing it is a far cry from the Philippines, where the mercury regularly hits 30 Celsius (86F) at this time of year.</p><p>The Philippines first sent athletes to the Winter Olympics in 1972, but sent a lone skier to the last Games in Beijing in 2022. They have never qualified anyone for a team event.</p><p>Delarmente wants to elevate curling in the Philippines and find more talent from people of Filipino heritage around the world.</p><p>Curling is the &quot;perfect&quot; sport for Filipinos, he said, likening it to a combination of billiards, bowls and chess on ice.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re already having some followers watching our games and messaging us: &#x27;How do we learn curling?&#x27; in the Philippines,&quot; Delarmente said.</p><p>&quot;So we&#x27;re getting there.</p><p>&quot;People are getting to know more and more about curling in the Philippines, especially (now) that we&#x27;ve had so much success.&quot;.</p><p>Curling fan Jojo Cruz, who grew up in the Philippines but now lives in the United States, booked a trip to Harbin.</p><p>&quot;I still can&#x27;t believe that tropical countries have the opportunity to play in winter or snow sports&quot;, Cruz told AFP.</p><p>Cruz has lived in the US for about four decades but said he still at times feels like a foreigner there, holding on to his roots in the Philippines.</p><p>&quot;I still have that connection, and I don&#x27;t want to lose that&quot;, said Cruz.</p><p>But the 61-year-old, who curled for the Philippines at a senior world championship last year, failed to get tickets for the curling competitions, which have room for only around 200 spectators.</p><p>But he was happy that the team were competing and said he was enjoying seeing different parts of the frigid city with his wife.</p><p>&quot;I told myself, hey, this is a beautiful place. Harbin is nice. It&#x27;s so cold, but it&#x27;s fine.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/othersports/2025/2/9/ph-women-moves-past-hong-kong-to-start-9th-asian-winter-games-stint-2204">PH women moves past Hong Kong to start 9th Asian Winter Games stint</a></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>A banker, a construction worker, an electrician and an entrepreneur from snowy Switzerland have an unlikely shot at making Winter Olympics curling history -- for the tropical Philippines.</p>

A banker, a construction worker, an electrician and an entrepreneur from snowy Switzerland have an unlikely shot at making Winter Olympics curling history -- for the tropical Philippines.

Curl Runnings! Philippines bank on unlikely Winter Olympics berth

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Curl Runnings! Philippines bank on unlikely Winter Olympics berth

Agence France-Presse,

Mary Yang

Published Feb 10, 2025 01:01 PM PHT

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Winter Olympics

Curl Running

Curling Pilipinas

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