THE goal of winning a Winter Olympics medal is now solidly cast in stone following the Philippine men’s curling team’s gold medal performance at the Ninth Asian Games in Harbin on Friday morning.
“This is too good to be true,” said Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino. “Shocking, that’s the least I can say.”
He added” “Now, the path is clearer toward our first medal in the Winter Olympics.”
The Filipino squad of Marc Pfister, Enrico Pfister, Alan Frei, Christian Haller and Benjo Delarmente beat South Korea, 5-3, in men’s curling’s gold medal play on the last day Thursday of the Asian Winter Games.
They are the best-performing Southeast Asian team in the 34-nation competition with Thailand clinching one bronze through Thai-Frenchman Paul Vieuxtemps in men’s slopestyle of freestyle skiing.
Tolentino, under his watch at the POC, has already achieved a historic and unbelievable three gold medals in the Summer Games—weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo in Tokyo 2020 and gymnast Carlos Yulo with two in Paris 2024.
The Harbin winter games, Tolentino said, were meant to be the springboard for the Philippines extending its success to the Winter Olympics.
“I always believe the impossible can be achieved,” Tolentino said. “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 25th Winter Olympics are set in Milano Cortina in February 2026 and with the gold medal as well as the promising performance of the 20-athlete team in Harbin, Tolentino said he’s hopeful the country can qualify medal potentials to Italy.
Just how big was the curling gold medal in Harbin.
“It’s that big,” Tolentino said. “These games are once every four years, and it will take a while to do this again.”
In the Incheon 2014 Asian Games with Tolentino already the president of the POC, cycling BMX bet Daniel Caluag won the country’s one and only gold medal, but Filipino athletes bounced back strong in Jakarta 2018 and brought home four golds.
