The road to the Olympic Games is rarely a smooth one. This is especially true for curlers, who require the smoothest of paths to glide their stones with precision. This week, eight men’s teams and eight women’s teams are battling for the final two places in Milan at the Olympic Qualification event at the Kelowna Curling Club in British Columbia, Canada.
Among the competitors, Australia’s women’s team, led by skipper Helen Williams, has already made headlines. After a challenging pre-Olympic Qualification event in October, they secured their spot by defeating Hungary 7-4, despite an earlier loss to the same team. “It’s a very exciting win for us as a team but also for Australia as a curling nation with no curling ice,” Williams remarked.
However, the most unexpected story comes from the Philippines men’s team, a narrative reminiscent of “Cool Runnings” and “Eddie the Eagle.” This tropical nation, with only six Winter Olympians in its history, now stands on the brink of an Olympic curling debut.
Cool Runnings Meets Eddie the Eagle
The idea of a Filipino curling team competing at the Olympic level seemed improbable. In 1972, cousins Juan Cipriano and Ben Nanasca became the first athletes from a tropical climate nation to compete in alpine skiing at the Nagano Games. Now, the men’s curling team could join this exclusive club.
Their journey began with Swiss businessman Alan Frei, who transformed his life through sport. “I was a 40-year-old overweight guy who had very bad physical health,” Frei told Olympics.com. Motivated by his Filipino heritage, Frei initially aimed for cross-country skiing but found his calling in curling through Christian Haller, a two-time world junior curling champion with Filipino roots.
“We came up with the event with the highest probability and that was to go cross-country skiing. So I went to the mountains. I got a trainer and I started with cross-country.”
While cross-country skiing wasn’t a fit, curling became the unexpected path. Despite initial struggles, Frei improved rapidly, joining a team with brothers Marc and Enrico Pfister.
Cancer Survivor’s Sporting Fairytale
Marc Pfister’s story adds a layer of magic to the team’s journey. A seasoned curler from Switzerland, Pfister faced a life-altering cancer diagnosis after narrowly missing the PyeongChang Games in 2018. “I had to stop for, I think, six months with curling, because it wasn’t possible with the operation and the chemo,” Pfister recalled. Yet, he returned to the sport, now representing the Philippines.
By October 2023, just months after their first training session, the team finished second in their debut tournament. They also achieved second place in the B-Division at the Pan Continental championships in Kelowna, earning promotion to the A-Division and a spot at the pre-Olympic Qualifier.
“I completely understand that people are critical about me and I feel kind of guilty, to be honest, because other people put in a lot of years into that and I get the recognition after one and a half years,” Frei said. “[But] this is the beauty of sports.”
Breaking New Ground
Earlier this year, the team surprised many by winning the Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China. Their success has silenced doubters and fueled their Olympic aspirations. “It’s not me buying a ticket to go to the Olympics, it’s all about the hard work I put in. It’s all about the team we are building,” Frei emphasized.
The Filipino curling team’s journey is not just about sport but about breaking barriers and redefining possibilities for tropical nations in winter sports. As they prepare for their final challenge in Kelowna, the world watches to see if this team will write a new chapter in Olympic history.
With their eyes set on Milan, the Filipino curlers are poised to turn a dream into reality. Only time will tell if they will become part of one of the greatest Olympic fairytales.
