PH Curling Team Dares to Dream for a 2026 Winter Olympics Bid

Is it possible for a tropical nation's team to succeed in an ice sport like curling?

Four Fil-Swiss curlers make up the Philippine National Curling Team, and they hope to demonstrate this as they prepare to compete for a spot in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan, Italy.

In the B-Division of the Pan Continental Curling Championships in Kelowna, Canada in 2023, the Philippine men's team won a silver medal, according to Alan Frei, a Filipino-Swiss entrepreneur, economist, curler, and team spokesman. In order to advance to the A-Division in the 2025 championships, the team hopes to duplicate its success in Alberta this October. The top two teams in that division will receive guaranteed spots in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

In March 2023, Frei—a relative curling novice—joined the Filipino team, one year after he sold his Swiss e-commerce company and made the decision “to become an Olympian.” Coworkers Christian Haller, a two-time medallist at the world junior championship, and brothers Marc and Enrico Pfister, who represented Switzerland in curling world championships in the past, share his dream. 

All Swiss-born like Frei, Haller, and the Pfister brothers are eligible to play for the country because of their Filipino mothers.

“The sport of curling is like playing chess on ice. It’s a combination of strategy and physical skill. We have a huge advantage in the strategy part because we have the experience of the three guys who have played on the world stage. The curling team aspires to pave the way for future curling athletes from the country in their bid for the Olympics. We are trying to foster [Filipino talent] more and more just by being a role model and having this super ambitious goal. We don't have a plan B. We have only one plan and that is to go to the Olympics.” ~Alan Frei, a Filipino-Swiss Entrepreneur, Economist, Curler, and Team Spokesman

The National Men's Curling Team will compete in an off-season competition this August called the Baden Master's in Switzerland, where they will play their first match against Italy, the top-ranked team in the world, in order to put their skills to the test. According to Frei, the team is eager to play Italy so they can determine their exact standing in the men's rankings of the World Curling Member Association, where they are currently ranked 51st.

The Swiss-Filipino team hopes that more Filipinos can become aware of their goals and what they’ve been doing so they can be inspired even more.

Frei said the curling team shoulders all their expenses at present, citing their need to first achieve “success” before asking for financial support from the POC and other possible sponsors.

The Swiss-Filipino athletes are also eyeing a podium finish against top Asian countries like China and Korea in the 2025 Asian Winter Gamesin Harbin to gain national recognition.

Single-minded in their dream to bring honor to the country, Frei revealed they want to achieve what the Jamaican Bobsled Team did in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. Received as underdogs in a cold weather sport, the Jamaicans competed against all odds and came out the favorites.