Christian Haller heard of my Olympic ambitions and reached out. Turns out, he, Enrico Pfister and Marc Pfister had a WhatsApp group with the idea of making a Philippine Curling team for years. I wasn’t an athlete yet but after our conversation, I thought: “Why ski when I can curl?”

So, I reached out to the Swiss Curling Association. I had two main queries: finding a coach and a place to practice during the summer. They informed me that Baden is the go-to place for curling in Switzerland. Coincidentally, I'm from Baden!

The next step was securing a coach. Through Stefan Meienberg, I connected with former Swiss professional curler Marcel Käufeler who had recently wrapped up his professional sports career.

Not very surprisingly, Marcel thought I was crazy, aiming for the Olympics with zero background in Curling. So, I made two commitments: First, I promised to train rigorously. Morning workouts for strength and endurance, and afternoon sessions on the ice at the Curling Center Baden Regio in Dättwil. Every single weekday. Second, thanks to my financial resources, the Philippine team would be the best-sponsored curling team out there. So, Marcel became my coach. And I joined the Philippine team on WhatsApp.

Starting in April 2023, I trained every day with my coach, Marcel Käufeler. Since I was new to curling and lacked strength and skills, this training was really important. My teammate Enrico Pfister was away, so I couldn't meet the rest of my team yet, but we talked over WhatsApp. I worked hard at the rink daily. Marcel had a structured training plan focused primarily on technique from the very start, emphasizing the importance of mastering the basics for long-term benefit. Initially, I wanted to get good quickly, but I learned that getting better takes time and lots of practice. As I kept at it, I slowly improved and started to really enjoy curling.

After three months of personal training on the ice with my coach Marcel Käufeler, it was time to meet my teammates in person and start practising. I was afraid I might slip on the ice. So, at our first group practice, I was wearing a helmet and hence earned some weird looks at first. The training sessions were intense and I was just trying to keep my balance on the ice.

I've got to hand it to the curling community; they're incredibly welcoming and supportive. Even though there's a lot of interaction and competition, the vibe is overwhelmingly positive.

My teammates and I all hold dual citizenship between Switzerland and the Philippines. And they have impressive careers in Curling: Enrico Pfister, playing as second in our team, has competed in three World Championships for Switzerland with a best-world finish of seventh place. His brother Marc Pfister has participated in the World Men’s Championships 2015, 2016 and 2017 and now plays as skip for our team. Christian Haller (Second) is a two-time world junior curling championship medallist. I am the newcomer, and play as lead.

For the CWSAP to become a Member Association of the World Curling Federation (WCF), our team first needed to accredit their heritage. Since Marc and Enrico’s mother was set on them representing Switzerland, they did not have Philippine passports. It was only after they made it clear that competing in the Olympics for Switzerland was off the table that she gave in.

So, July was all about getting their passports from the Philippines. I took the initiative to reach out to the Philippine embassy to clarify their situation and speed up the process. In our situation, getting a passport the regular way would have taken too long. So, we had to ask the embassy to expedite it.

After getting the passports for Marc and Enrico just in time, we approached the World Curling Federation (WCF) to register the Curling Winter Sports Association of the Philippines (CWSAP) as a member. Founded in 2019, CWSAP is the national sports association for curling in the Philippines and covers Olympic and non-Olympic events like floor and street curling.

To register with the WCF, we first had to inform the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) of our intentions. The process turned out to be more challenging than we thought. Given that their focus is primarily on summer sports, it was no surprise they were taken aback by a curling request. As they checked the membership count, competitions held, and so on, we were unsure if we would get their approval quickly enough.

On August 24th, and with just one day left to submit our application to the World Curling Congress, we finally got the WCF endorsement letter.

After so much uncertainty, our spirits were lifted when the World Curling Federation accredited us as a new Member Association on September 15th. However, our relief was short-lived, as we quickly needed to apply for the qualification games scheduled in Kelowna, Canada, for late October 2023. Unfortunately, we did not make it on time, so our application was waitlisted. But, as we were part of the WCF now, we could participate in other international curling events, too.

So, we registered for the Men Prague Open, an event as part of the World Curling Tour taking place in the Czech Republic.

And then, we received the notification that the Kazakhstan team withdrew last minute from the Pan Continental Curling Championships (PCCC) in Kelowna!

With our first-ever tournament as a team coming up from October 5th – 8th, things sped up. I was nervous. I thought I might get kicked off the team on our flight back. That was my worst-case scenario.

As we started warming up for our first game, we realized that we had never really discussed the warm-up routine in detail before. As I was set to deliver the first stone for our team, I sent it sliding too far, ending up out of bounds. During my first turn as a sweeper, I slipped and fell, landing on my backside on the ice. The Italian team we were playing against had taken a substantial lead.

However, after more than three hours of play, we won! With every game, we kept getting better. We even defeated the Czech Republic's top team, a squad that competed in the World Championships back in April, when our team was just forming on WhatsApp. For the finals, we agreed on forfeiting if the game ran too long. We needed to get our flight back to Zurich. So, we placed second overall.

Later that month, we were on a plane to Kelowna, Canada to play in the B-Division at the Pan Continental Curling Championships (PCCC). The games were held from October 24th to November 4th.

The PCCC line-up was challenging. In the B-Division, we faced off against teams from Canada, the USA, Korea, Japan, and the well-established Chinese team. China, usually in Division A, was relegated to B after they withdrew from the 2022 edition.

This was our first major chance on our journey to the 2026 Winter Games. We were all nervous but I reminded myself that I had trained as much as possible for the games, with a combination of team and individual training, mornings and afternoons.

Our first game was against Mexico, on October 29th. We won 12:4.

On October 30th, we played against India and Hong Kong – and won both games 12:5.

But every game is different from the last. The better team doesn't always win. It's about scoring at the crucial moment. The odds were in our favor – until we played China on the 31st. We all knew this would be a tough one.

We lost 4:9. But not all was lost, as we still had three games to go.

On November 1st, we played against Kenya and Saudi Arabia. After our loss the day before, we celebrated two wins that day (16:1 and 16:0, respectively). The last before the semifinals, on November 2nd, we competed against Brazil, and won 11:2. Would we make it into the finals?

On November 3rd, it was time for the semifinals. We played against Hong Kong and did indeed win! After the 9:5 victory, we were heading for the finals the next day. It was China once more – and we lost 4:8. Nevertheless, we made it to second place and a Silver medal. We did not make the cut to the A-Division this time, but we have another shot through a unique qualifying event next year.

We are planning a documentary on our Olympic journey. “Slippery Business - An Unlikely Curling Tale” will be a multi-part and multimedia documentary series that follows the ambitious journey of our newly formed curling team from Switzerland and the Philippines.

Click here to watch our first trailer.

The Winter Olympics may still be on the horizon, but our path to qualification is moving at full speed. This October, we returned to Canada for the Pan Continental Curling Championships, one year after our debut.

This time, the stakes were higher: to move forward in the qualification journey, we had to secure a spot in the A-Division. Promotion was a must.

Our team, Curling Pilipinas, took on the challenge with everything we had. We went in with focus and determination, ready to compete alongside a challenging line-up that included teams from India, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Hong Kong, and Brazil.

Fueled by the dream of making history as the first Filipino curling team to reach the Olympics, we marched through the tournament. Session 1 saw a 15:0 win over Saudi Arabia. Session 2 against India ended 10:2 in our favor, followed by an 18:2 win over Nigeria in Session 4. Our momentum continued with wins against Puerto Rico (11:2), Brazil (8:1), Jamaica (7:5), Kenya (16:0), Hong Kong (9:4), and Kazakhstan (6:5), winning game after game. In the semi-finals, we faced Hong Kong again. They gave their best, but we kept our lead and finished 6:1.

Throughout the tournament, we had our goal clearly in sight. In the final match, we faced off against Kazakhstan once more. With a final score of 9:3, we took first place and claimed gold.

Our promotion to the A-Division was an unforgettable moment for our team and an important step forward on our Olympic path. We have been working towards this moment all season and could not be more grateful.