In a series of exhilarating matches at the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China, the Philippine men’s curling team etched their names into history by securing the nation’s first-ever gold medal in the competition.
The victory marks not only the nation’s first-ever medal in the Asian Winter Games but also the first gold medal won by any Southeast Asian country in the event’s history.
The Philippine men’s team is a new entrant to the world stage, having been accepted as a member of the World Curling Federation in September 2023.
The team consists of brothers Marc Pfister and Enrico Pfister, Alan Frei, Christian Haller, and alternate Benjo Delarmente, who also serves as the team’s president.
The Pfister brothers, along with Frei and Haller, were born to Filipino mothers in Switzerland. Their journey to forming a national team is fascinating.
The Pfister brothers and Haller had relatively accomplished backgrounds competing in curling and had discussed the idea of forming a Philippines national team, but interestingly, Alan Frei had only just begun curling at the start of 2023 when an intense weight loss journey led him to the sport.
Frei’s idea was to obsessively train in a Winter Olympics sport to both become fit and perhaps defy all odds and qualify for the Winter Olympics in Italy in 2026.
Frei first tried cross-country skiing but quickly realized he needed to pivot to another sport.
“I started skiing and shared my Olympic ambitions with everyone. Only to find out that I was a terrible skier,” Frei wrote on his blog which covers his journey.
Haller got word of Frei’s Olympic ambitions and reached out to Frei and shared the idea of pursuing a Philippine men’s curling team in March of 2023.
Frei took to the challenge and would spend the next three months in rigorous training with a personal coach, Swiss professional curler Marcel Käufeler.
Despite Frei’s novice status, he progressed rapidly in skill. In June 2023, the aspiring team met in person for the first time and started practicing intensely together.
There was immediate team chemistry and Haller and the Pfister brothers quickly brought Frei into the fold. On September 15, only three months after the team had first assembled, the World Curling Federation accredited the Philippines as a new Member Association.
Just a month later, the team competed in its first tournament in Prague, finishing in second place. In November of 2023, the team was granted entry to the B-division in the Pan Continental Curling Championships in Canada.
They would finish second to China, a great accomplishment, but fell short of making it to the A-Division, a requirement for Olympic qualification.
In October 2024 the team would return to the Pan Continental Curling Championships in Canada. Although the team had only been competing for a year, they were already down to their last chance to keep the Olympic dream alive.
Failure to win promotion to the A-Division would foreclose on Olympic qualification.
If the team’s tenuous status caused any jitters they were quickly forgotten as Curling Pilipinas, as they had come to be known, opened the tournament with dominant victories: 15-0 over Saudi Arabia, 10-2 over India, and 18-2 over Nigeria.
They would edge out formidable opponents Hong Kong and Kazakhstan on their way to sweeping the early sessions of the Championships.
In the elimination round, they once again faced Hong Kong in the semi-finals and won 6-1.
In the final match, they faced off against Kazakhstan who they’d narrowly beaten 6-5 in the first matchup, but with the goal of continuing their Olympic path so clearly in sight, Curling Pilipinas overpowered Kazakhstan 9-3 to claim the gold.
With first place secured, the team also won the coveted promotion to the A-division. The Olympic dream was alive.
With fresh hopes, the Philippine men’s team entered the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China which took place from February 7th to 14th.
On Frei’s blog, he noted: “This event is like the Olympics for Asia, and we will be proudly representing the Philippines.”
The Asian Winter Games featured the most daunting opponents the team had faced including the two-time gold medal-winning South Korea, Japan, and a rematch with China.
The Philippines men would finish the round robin phase 3-1 earning entry to the medal bracket. In a rather stunning turn of events, Curling Pilipinas would soundly defeat Japan 10-4 in the quarterfinals. Japan was ranked 10th in the world at the time.
This set up a rematch with host nation China, the reigning Asian Winter Games curling gold medal winners, who had beaten the Philippines in the finals of the Pan Continental Curling Championships a year earlier.
In the semi-final game, China established a 4-1 lead halfway through the match. However, the Philippine team, undeterred, embarked on a remarkable comeback.
They meticulously chipped away at China’s lead, and after the seventh end, they managed to bring the game to a tense 6-6 tie, setting the stage for a nail-biting final.
In the decisive eighth end, both teams executed high-quality shots. It came down to the final stone.
The Philippines’ skip, Marc Pfister, delivered an expertly placed draw that knocked two of China’s potentially scoring stones out of the scoring zone, securing a single point for the Philippines, and clinching a dramatic 7-6 victory over China.
The win propelled the Philippines into the gold medal match.
The final confrontation pitted the Philippines against the heavily favored South Korean team, a squad that had handed the Philippines their sole defeat during the round-robin stage, and which was ranked 7th overall in the world curling rankings.
The early ends saw the Philippines seizing momentum, establishing a 3-1 advantage by the fourth end.
South Korea responded by securing single points in the fifth and sixth ends, leveling the match at 3-3.
In the critical seventh end, the Philippines executed a series of strategic plays, culminating in a well-earned point that nudged them ahead, 4-3.
The final end came down to defensive prowess.
The Philippines had managed to place a stone closest to the button and had set up a wall of four other stones blocking the scoring zone. South Korea’s only play was to attempt a daring shot, sending their final stone right into one of the Philippines’ defensive placements in an attempt to set off a cascade of carroms that might displace the well-guarded central stone.
But the defense was too strong, and the carrom failed, adding another point to the Philippines’ tally, and sealing a historic 5-3 triumph.
This fall the team will play in two seismic tournaments.
First, when they return to the Pan Continental Curling Championships, now as part of the A-Division, where a fifth-place finish or better would qualify them for the World Championships.
Second, the Philippine men’s team will compete in an Olympic pre-qualification tournament where a top-three finish would grant the team a berth in the Olympic Qualification Tournament.
The gold medal victory in the Asian Winter Games saw Curling Pilipinas defeat powerhouse teams, including two of the top 10 teams in the world. With victory on such a grand stage, the Philippine men’s curling team has made a statement that their Olympic ambitions are within reach.
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