“The sport of curling is like chess on ice. It’s a combination of strategy and physical skill,” says Alan Frei as the Philippines seeks to qualify for the Winter Olympics

MANILA, Philippines – For a team representing a tropical country, it can be tough to compete for glory in winter sports, but the Philippine curling team is aiming for nothing less than history.

Although a handful of Filipino athletes have competed in individual events at the Winter Olympics, no team has ever qualified. This has Alan Frei and the rest of the national curling team aiming for the 2026 Games in Milan, Italy.

“We’re really trying to make history here for the Philippines. And we’re trying to be the first winter team (from the Philippines) to ever compete in a Winter Olympics,” Frei recently told reporters.

Curling is a precision sport played on ice, in which players slide heavy granite stones toward a target. The team with the most points wins.

Frei, a Filipino-Swiss businessman, Christian Haller and brothers Marc and Enrico Pfister make up the team, which won a silver medal last year at the Pan Continental Curling Championships Division B in Kelowna, Canada.

Haller has also won two World Junior Curling Championships, while the Pfister brothers once represented Switzerland at the World Curling Championships.

“The sport of curling is like chess on ice. It’s a combination of strategy and physical skill,” Frei said.

“We have a huge advantage in terms of strategy because we have the experience of the three guys who have played on the world stage.”

To reach the Olympics, the team must finish at least second or dominate the Pan Continental Championships to advance to Division A. Only the top two teams can secure a ticket to the 2026 Winter Games.

Frei said the Switzerland-based players, all born to Filipino mothers, are targeting the 2026 Olympics, which he described as the “holy grail of curling,” banking on the team’s agility.

“(The Olympics) is our only goal. So as a team… there is like the only ambition there,” he said. “We, as a team, don’t have a plan B. Our only plan is to go to the Olympics. There is no plan B. We don’t have any other goals.”

The Filipinos, who are ranked 51st by the World Curling Member Association, hope their recent participation in the Baden Masters in Switzerland, where they competed against the world’s best curlers, will boost their quest for Olympic history.

“Hopefully this is the beginning of something special for the Philippines,” Frei said. – Rappler.com