Ice breaker

Curlers win gold in Asian winter games

If there’s any doubt on the golden era Philippine sports is enjoying at present, it was quashed yesterday.

Given little chance against the region’s giants, the underdog Philippine men’s curling team of Marc and Enrico Pfister, Christian Haller, Alan Frei and Benjo Delarmente completed its fairy tale run by delivering a historic gold medal in the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China yesterday.

It came via a pulsating 5-3 victory over South Koreans Lee Jaebeom, Kim Hyojun, Kim Eunbin and Pyo Jeongmin, ending the country’s long wait for a a medal or a golden finish in the quadrennial meet.

“We wanted to go for a medal, but the gold medal, this is overwhelming,” said Frei.

“This is so weird, isn’t it? It’s just absolutely wild,” added Frei, who only started curling in 2023.

But he said the win doesn’t guarantee they will make it to the ultimate stage, the Winter Olympics.

“We were also lucky, and maybe we wanted it a bit more,” he said. “It’s day one again. Back to the beginning. Back to the gym.”

“This is too good to be true,” said Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino. “Shocking, that’s the least I can say.”

It was a sweet ending for a country that has been enjoying a sports boom in the last few years after golden performances by weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, who struck gold in the Tokyo Olympics, and gymnast Carlos Yulo, who copped a pair of mints in the Paris Games.

It was made sweeter by the fact that it was won by a tiny tropical country whose citizens fly to other nations just to chase their snow dreams.

And there is hope that the country could also accomplish another breakthrough – a medal, of any color, in next year’s Winter Olympics in Italy.

“Now, the path is clearer toward our first medal in the Winter Olympics,” added the POC chief.

“I always believe the impossible can be achieved,” Tolentino added. “We did it in Tokyo and Paris, and it may not come in Italy next year, but I believe we’re on the right track.”

The win avenged the Filipino curlers’ 6-1 defeat to the South Korean side in the group stages last Feb. 9.

Interestingly, it came in the Nationals’ first match in the men’s team event that they eventually used as a motivation by sweeping the rest of their outings including a pair of shock wins over the fancied Japanese, 10-4, in the qualification round and the host Chinese, 7-6, in the semis Thursday.

The Philippines was accepted as a member association of the World Curling Federation in September, 2023 – along with Pakistan and Puerto Rico – and started a bid to qualify for the 2026 Olympics.

The men’s team is based in Switzerland. Pfister represented the Swiss at three world championships before switching countries.

He and his brother, Enrico, are among the four curlers who were born in Switzerland and are eligible to play for the Philippines through their Filipino mothers.

Teams from 34 countries stretching from Saudi Arabia in the west of the continent to Singapore and Philippines in the southeast, competed in 10 sports across 11 days at the Harbin Games that were due to finish Friday.