A change in lifestyle prompted entrepreneur Alan Frei to take up curling. In the process, he rediscovered his Filipino roots and won an Asian Winter Games gold medal.
People often take up a new sport to lose weight and stay healthy. In the case of Alan Frei, his decision to take up the winter sport of curling resulted in so much more.
Frei, 42, is a successful entrepreneur. He sold his e-commerce company in 2022 and has been financially independent ever since. But he began neglecting his health and put on a massive amount of weight.
“I was about 25 kilos more than today,” Frei told The GAME Magazine in an exclusive interview. “And then I went to the doctor, and the doctor told me my blood work is really, really bad. So, I went to my girlfriend and told her I want to become really healthy.”
Most people in his situation would have simply hit the gym or the running trail, but Alan Frei wanted to lose weight in style.
“What’s the highest you can achieve in sports and you want to be fit? It’s going to the Olympics. So, I told (my girlfriend) I’m going to the Olympics.”
The plan
Of course, qualifying to play in the Olympics isn’t as simple as filling up a gym membership form. But Alan Frei had a plan.
“I called up my lawyer. I told him, ‘Go through all the regulations and tell me what’s the easiest way to go to the Olympics.’ So, he came back and he told me, ‘Alan, you have no chance for Switzerland, neither in winter nor summer Olympics. But your mother is Filipino. So, you have a small chance in the Winter Olympics.’”
Frei’s mother is indeed Filipino, the former Pacita Astillero who hails from Napantao, a sleepy coastal town in Southern Leyte known for its excellent dive spots. That made him eligible to hold a Philippine passport, the basic requirement to represent the country in the Olympics.
Having been born and raised in Switzerland, Frei thought he had a chance at qualifying for cross-country skiing. All it took was a few lessons to convince him that wasn’t the right path.
“I started cross-country skiing and I had no talent,” he readily admits. “I always fell. And the coach I had, he was like, ‘This will be very, very tough for you.’”
Frei still wouldn’t give up on his Olympic dream, even telling everyone that he was still going to the Olympics. Exactly how wasn’t clear, until, in his words, “a small miracle happened.”
In March 2023, Frei received an interesting email. “A guy called Christian wrote me and he was like, ‘Hey, Alan, I’m half-Filipino like you and I’ve been curling for 30 years. Can we have a phone call?’ I said, ‘Yes, let’s have a phone call.’”
The guy called Christian was Christian Haller, an accomplished curler who, like Alan, was looking for a way to rep the Philippines in the Winter Olympics by forming the country’s first-ever curling team. As it happened, they were still a man short.
“He explained to me that in curling you need four people. And besides Christian, there are two half-Filipinos living in the mountains of Switzerland. And they’re very, very talented curlers.”
As it turned out, Christian and the two others — brothers Marc and Enrico Pfister — had been searching for that fourth member for years.
“The three of them had a WhatsApp group called Team Pilipinas,” Alan said. So, when they went to tournaments and somebody looked Asian, they asked him, are you Filipino? And then the answer was, ‘No, I’m Thai. No, I’m Indonesian, not Filipino.’
“And because I told everybody I want to go to the Olympics, they contacted me. I told them I never curled in my life, but I can’t have less talent in curling than I have in cross-country skiing. So, let me switch to curling.
“And then I got myself a coach. I started two years ago. And since then, I’ve been playing every day.”
Alan Frei is not your typical Fil-foreigner. While he barely speaks Tagalog, he is fluent in Bisaya. His earliest memories of the Philippines were formed when he was just three years old when he and his mother visited her parents in Napantao. And instead of the hustle and bustle of Manila, Alan’s core experience was overwhelmingly rural.
“My Filipino roots are very strong, obviously, because of my mother. I have a very strong relationship with my mother. And what I remember is my mother always tried to make us go quite as often as possible to the Philippines because we have a lot of relatives. My lola lived in Southern Leyte. Me remembering the Philippines, it was never about Manila or something. It was all about the countryside.
“My grandfather was a fisherman. We had pump boats. When we got to Leyte, there was no electricity. So, those are the first things I remember.”
That first visit, Alan soaked up his Leyte experience to the max, so much so that when he got back to Switzerland, he had forgotten how to speak German and was only speaking Bisaya.
Alan would eventually make, by his estimation, over 20 more trips to the Philippines. He became even more immersed in Filipino culture, including our love for basketball.
Thanks to a generator that kicked in at six o’clock every night, Alan got his first exposure to the PBA. “I remember watching the PBA on a really bad TV, like Alvin Patrimonio. That was my favorite player.
“I was rooting for Alaska. Not because I knew exactly a lot about it, but because my uncle was a fan of Alaska. And then I got into the PBA again when my friend Mike Burtscher played for Kia.”
Soon, Alan started diversifying his trips, making visits to Manila, Cebu, Boracay, Bohol, and Palawan.
“I’m still missing Siargao,” he said. Everybody tells me I need to go.”
‘Chess on ice’
Ask any Filipino on the street about curling, and you’re more likely to be directed to the nearest beauty salon.
“Curling is not a known sport,” Alan Frei admits. “But it’s gaining in popularity. The most successful teams are in Europe and Canada and U.S. But Asia is picking up, especially with Korea, Japan and China being on top of the curling world at the moment.
Alan says curling combines strategy and physical effort.
“What you’re trying to do is you’re trying to get as many stones into the ‘house.’ So, the house looks like a large dart board. But on the floor, everything is played on ice.
“There are two teams. Each team has eight rocks. And every player is playing two rocks. They also call curling chess on ice because it’s very strategic. You’re trying to make it as hard as possible for the opponent to get the stones into the house.
“There’s a lot of strategy involved. That’s the strategic part. The physical part is playing the stone. And to get the stone at the right position, you are sweeping it. Through the sweeping of the stone, you’re creating a water film like aquaplaning on the ice. And then you can make the stone go longer.
“People call it chess on ice. It’s like bowling on ice. It’s a sport about precision.”
The “skip” or the captain of the team is in charge of the strategy. When a player pushes his stone forward, two others follow alongside it. If it appears that the stone’s momentum is not fast enough to reach the house, the two on the side start sweeping the ice to give it a smoother runway, so to speak.
“So, basically, you’re clearing the way for the stone to arrive where you want it to arrive,” Alan says. “We are not clearing in the sense that we are taking away other stones. We are giving it direction plus length. That’s what we are doing.
Now it’s easy to understand how Alan lost 25 kilograms from curling.
“When people look at curling, often they underestimate it. Playing the stone, that’s not hard. That’s not very physically demanding. It needs precision. You need to be on track.
“But the sweeping, you want to create as much force as possible on the ice. And how do you create that? By having a 45-degree angle and putting a lot of weight on the broom. And so, you need a lot of core strength on the one-hand side.
“And if you sweep down for 20 seconds back and forth, it’s a cardio thing. So, it’s more and more cardio plus core strength. These are the two things.”
To be in peak form for this type of activity, Alan says he lifts weights and does a lot of planking.
“Instability planks are good. So, you know, like on non-stable ground, just getting the core right. Plus, one of the best cardio things is like the skierg. It’s like skiing and you pull it down. So, it’s like cardio. It’s upper body cardio.”
Repping the Philippines
His curling skills and physical condition both at optimum levels, Alan Frei and his newfound teammates now took on the task of convincing the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) that their plan wasn’t crazy.
“It started two years ago with the goal to go to the Olympics. And obviously, in the beginning, everybody was like, ‘What is going on here? First, what is curling? Why do you want to do that?’ And they were a bit skeptical.
“We knew that we are kind of in deep to show that we can succeed and make this plan. So, in the very beginning, we were self-funded.”
It was POC president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino who took up the cudgels for the group, writing a letter to the World Curling Federation applying for membership. Luckily, it was approved, and Curling Pilipinas was born.
“Today, we are very happy that the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission are helping us,” Alan said.
The next step was to join a big tournament to gauge where they were on the world stage, and the group picked the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games as their launching pad.
“Our goal is to go to the Olympics. And we saw the Asian Games more as a practice tournament for us because the ice on the arena is a little bit different. It’s a little bit faster. It curls a little bit more.”
The group had modest goals for Harbin, with a fourth-place finish considered a success already and a bronze medal a big bonus.
“That was our plan. So, we never went there with the expectation of winning gold.”
Glory in Harbin
Before Alan Frei and the rest of the Philippine curling team flew to Harbin, he asked ChatGPT what their chances were of winning the gold.
“It answered 1 in 50,” Frei said with a laugh. Indeed, nobody gave the Philippines much of a chance to advance to the medal rounds, let alone win the whole damn thing.
There were 11 teams competing in the men’s curling event in Harbin. The Philippines was grouped with Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei, Kyrgyzstan, and medal favorites South Korea
“Our preparation was not the same as the other ones,” Alan said. “The top teams are Korea, Japan, China. And they’re professional curling players. We are not professional curling players. Everybody has a job on the side.”
The gap became obvious right in their opening match against Korea.
“We got slaughtered. We lost 6-1. We were like, okay, you know what? The first game, that’s all right. We just need to get in.”
The team knew they had to win at least two of their remaining three games to advance to the quarterfinals. They outdid themselves, sweeping their last three assignments to arrange a quarterfinal date with powerhouse Japan.
“And we knew, ‘Oh, Japan, that will be a hard one,’” Alan recalled. “And then I played the game of my life. I never had such a good game like against Japan, which helped us a lot.”
The result was a stunning 10-4 victory and a place in the semifinals.
“We were like, ‘Oh my god, now we have two chances to get a medal. That would be a great achievement because it would be the first medal for the Philippines ever.”
Waiting for them in the semifinals were the hosts and reigning Asian Winter Games gold medalists China.
“We are the underdog. They’re in their hometown, everything. So, we realized, ‘Okay, you know what? We have nothing to lose here. So, let’s have fun out here. And let’s try to make it a little bit hard for them.’
“And in the first end, we were lucky. And then, suddenly, we realized, okay, you know what? We can turn this. And it became a head-to-head race.
“And they underestimated us for a long time. You know, they did some strategic moves that you probably wouldn’t do if you’re expecting, an equal competitor. So, then we kicked out China on their home turf.”
The Philippines squeaked past China 7-6, and suddenly they were in the gold medal match. It took a moment for it all to sink in.
“Oh, my God, we are in the finals now. How did that happen? And into the finals, we were very relaxed because we knew we got a medal. And the goal was to get a medal. And if we would have won silver, we would have been the happiest silver winners in the world. So, we were very relaxed.”
This was the same Korean team that had embarrassed them in their opening game. Surely, the Philippines wouldn’t be able to beat a third Asian powerhouse in a row, right?
But the combination of a nothing-to-lose mindset and their opponents’ overconfidence tipped the scales a bit towards the Philippines, and it became a close contest.
“We had the Koreans, back again from the first game. And these are young guys, very talented curlers. They are professional current players. They’re 22, 23. They’re in their prime. And they believe that this will be an easy final for them. They were expecting China, obviously.
“So, we went into the game, the strategy was very clear. Just be very, very close throughout the game. And don’t make stupid mistakes that we will lose many points. So, we kind of, you know, the first two, three ends, we could keep pace.”
“We didn’t lose too many points. And then we realized that they got nervous because, we were the underdogs. They couldn’t get away, and then the momentum shifted. And then suddenly they were under pressure.”
And in one of the most dramatic moments you will ever witness, the Philippines’ first-ever men’s curling made history. Its 7-6 win over South Korea was not only the country’s first gold medal in the Asian Winter Games, it was the first medal of any variety. The team, brought together just two years earlier and ranged against professionals, somehow took down three Asian giants on their way to the historic gold.
When it was all over, Alan Frei’s phone began blowing up with congratulatory messages. Meanwhile, back in Napantao, relatives had begun showing his mother social media posts about her son’s achievement.
“My mother doesn’t know 100% what curling is,” he said. “And then suddenly, my cousins were sharing it on Facebook. And she was like, ‘What is going on here?’ And she called me up, like, ‘You’re all over the media. What is going on here?’ And I told her, ‘Yeah, the story I told you about curling.’ And then she realized how important it was. She was very happy and very proud.”
Alan eventually flew to Leyte to personally show his mother the gold medal. Now, she watches as much curling as she can.
“Suddenly, I sparked an interest in her. She wasn’t interested in curling at all.”
Olympic dream lives on
To be clear, Alan Frei is still pursuing his dream of representing the Philippines in the Winter Olympics. Their Asian Winter Games gold medal triumph, as historic as it was, unfortunately, did not automatically earn them a ticket to the Big Dance.
The path to Milano Cortina 2026 won’t be easy. Team Philippines has to first participate in a pre-qualification event and finish in the top three. If they manage to do that, it’s on to the qualification event, where only the top two will join the top eight countries from the next World Championships.
Alan Frei is honest enough to admit their chances, on paper, don’t look good.
“So, the honest assessment would be 20% chance (of making the Olympics),” he said matter-of-factly. “That would be the honest assessment.’
Ironically, he believes the Asian Winter Games gold might have hurt their chances.
“People won’t underestimate us anymore,” he explained. “Before, teams we played against, they didn’t show up for training the day before because they thought, ‘We’ll beat them anyway.’ This won’t happen again. So the real assessment here, honest assessment, is 15 to 20 percent chance.
“But it doesn’t matter, it can be a half percent. We will go all in.”
Whatever happens over the next couple of years, Alan hopes that their achievement will spark an interest in curling among Filipinos. He has reason to be optimistic.
“It’s a precision sport. Filipinos are good at bowling, darts, pool. You know, I love basketball. But we have physical disadvantages in basketball, unfortunately, through our height. But in curling, you don’t have these disadvantages. So, we, as Filipinos, we love precision sports. These are just things we’re good at.”
For now, the president of Curling Pilipinas, Benjo Delarmente, is working with his counterparts in other Asian countries to try and bring Filipino curlers over to learn from the best.
“And then, down the road, you know, maybe we’ll have our own curling facility,” Alan says.
By now, Alan Frei is back in Switzerland already training for their shot at the Olympics. He will always savor this achievement, and will always be happy that he made his mother proud.
“It had this Cool Runnings moment, you know,” he said in reference to the 1993 film about the Jamaican bobsledding team’s magical ride to the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. “So, it’s like they call it ‘Curl Runnings,’ which I like.”
But it’s now time to put the gold medal in a drawer or trophy case and get back to work. Time waits for no one, after all.
“This doesn’t help me at all to get to the Olympics. Contrary, it makes it harder, because people expect something now. And our goal is going to the Olympics. So, we need to become humble again and put that aside and train harder.”
Banner Images from Excel Panlaque/KLIQ, Inc.