SPORT BANTER  | Alan Frei ng Philippine Curling Team - video Dailymotion

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Transcript

00:00We have with us live in the studio, Alan Frey of the Philippine Curling Team.

00:06Good morning!

00:07Hello, good morning! I'm Isaiah, love it!

00:10Yes, I know that you're from Cebu, you just mentioned that.

00:13So now, let's go ahead and talk about yourself first.

00:16So, you mentioned already you're from Cebu.

00:19So tell me about your background and how did you end up with curling as a sport?

00:26So, my mom is from Cebu and Leyte, and my father is Swiss.

00:30So I'm half Swiss, half Filipino.

00:32I was born in Switzerland, but we visited the Philippines every year.

00:36My whole family is here in the south of the Philippines.

00:40And I started curling two years ago, so not too long ago.

00:44And here we are with the gold medal at the Asian Winter Games.

00:47Can you put that up again?

00:48Yeah, sure.

00:49And show that in the camera.

00:50Sure.

00:51Right, here.

00:52So, it's the first Asian Winter Games medal for a Southeast Asian country, and it's a gold one.

00:59So, right now we are the best curling team in whole Asia, which is crazy.

01:04Congratulations, definitely.

01:06Okay, now you mentioned you just started sports just two years ago.

01:11But you also told us earlier that you were heavier.

01:15Yes.

01:16So tell us about your fitness journey.

01:18The whole plan was I had a company, and I sold it in 2022.

01:23And suddenly I had a lot of time and a lot of money, but I was massively overweight.

01:28And then I was like, okay, I want to get really fit.

01:31And what's the highest in sports you can do is go to the Olympics.

01:35So my plan was go to the Olympics.

01:37I called up my lawyer.

01:38He came back and said, Alan, you have no chance for Switzerland, neither in Winter or Summer Olympics.

01:43But you have a small chance for the Philippines in Winter Olympics.

01:46And I tried cross-country skiing first.

01:48I had no talent at all.

01:50And then the small miracle happened in 2023, where three guys who are half Filipinos as I am,

01:58and they've been curling since 25 years, and they needed a fourth one.

02:02And so they asked me if I want to join.

02:04And then I started curling two years ago.

02:06And now we are the gold medal winner.

02:08Wow, what a story.

02:10But can you tell us more about how does it feel to make history in the Winter Games?

02:15So, you know, to put it in context, the teams we beat at the end in the quarterfinals, semifinals,

02:23and in the finals are all professional teams.

02:26So they do nothing else than they play curling.

02:30It's Japan, China, and Korea.

02:32These are like top teams.

02:33So it's very similar if, you know, the Filipinos would win in basketball against the U.S.

02:38So that's where we stand.

02:41And when we won the medal, nobody expected it.

02:44We were just checking the betting odds.

02:46And it was 1 to 50 that we would win the gold medal.

02:49So it's like, it's very low betting odds.

02:52We knew that we can play curling.

02:54We knew that we can maybe reach the bronze medal.

02:57But having the gold medal, we are as surprised as anybody else.

03:01And it makes us super proud.

03:04We are very happy to represent the Philippines.

03:07And there are so many Filipinos all around the world.

03:09And we want to show the Philippines, you know what?

03:12Hey, believe in yourself and just go for gold.

03:15Yeah, well, it's kind of interesting and weird at the same time.

03:19Absolutely.

03:20Because we don't have winter in the Philippines.

03:23And then you guys are from Switzerland.

03:25So how did you train going into the Harbin Winter Games?

03:29So you're right.

03:31So curling is a weird sport in the sense that it's on ice.

03:35And we don't have any ice here in the Philippines.

03:37But it's a precision sport.

03:39And the precision sport Filipinos are really good at.

03:43It's very similar to bowling, dart, or billiard.

03:45And that's where Filipinos really exceed.

03:48So what we do is we are not professional curling players.

03:53You know, the other guys were for a long time, but they retired.

03:57And they work normal jobs.

03:59So the project started two years ago where we decided, you know what?

04:03Let's give it a shot.

04:04Let's go for the Olympics.

04:06Let's try how far can we get.

04:08And then what happened is we started training.

04:10And the others are really good.

04:12I'm the problem.

04:13I'm the worst in the team.

04:14So I had to catch up.

04:16And now I'm catching up.

04:17And we train once a week together.

04:19And all the others are training like two to three times a week.

04:23And I started training daily just to catch up.

04:27But it's not a professional team, you know.

04:30Everything in the beginning was self-funded.

04:33We didn't have any sponsors.

04:35We didn't have any help.

04:37The help was that we could go to the games.

04:40We were very thankful for that.

04:42But now that changed dramatically.

04:44So now the sports commission, the Filipino sports commission is helping us.

04:49The Filipino Olympic Committee is helping us.

04:52So we are very grateful for that.

04:53That's really good news.

04:54Yes, very much.

04:55Very much.

04:56Can you describe the emotions you've experienced, you and your teammates,

05:01when you won the gold?

05:02Yeah.

05:03So it's absolutely surreal.

05:04As I mentioned before, you know, this is a sensation in the sense of nobody expected that.

05:11So when we won the semifinals against China in China, you know, this was big.

05:19This was a huge thing because China was probably the best team, China and Korea.

05:25And then we went into the finals and we knew we have the first medal.

05:30So, you know, it didn't matter for us if we get silver or gold.

05:33We were like, hey, we made history.

05:35We got the first medal.

05:36We would have been the happiest second place in the world.

05:39And then so we could go in very relaxed and we knew we just need to stick close to them,

05:45not get lost too many points and just be close to them.

05:50And then suddenly we realized, oh, they're getting nervous.

05:53So South Korea was getting nervous.

05:55They're professional curling players.

05:57But we could feel that we have a chance.

06:00And then we won.

06:01And this was absolutely mind blowing.

06:04It was just crazy.

06:06And there were a lot of Filipinos in the stands cheering for us.

06:09So absolutely surreal.

06:12This is the first time Philippines had a representative in the Winter Games.

06:17How does that make you feel from the beginning until the end when you got the medal?

06:21So in the very beginning, it was, you know, for us, it was like getting experience for our Olympic journey,

06:28you know, because the ice is a little bit different in the arena.

06:31So we were like, hey, we can get experience.

06:34Nobody expected anything from us.

06:36You know, we knew that we can compete with them, but nobody expected anything.

06:40So there was no pressure.

06:42And then and now, you know, since we have the gold medal, things are changing, right?

06:47Pressure is on.

06:48People expect things now.

06:50We were joking a little bit.

06:51Probably it would have been easier, you know, going home with the fourth place because nobody would expect anything.

06:57But now it changes.

06:58But we are very proud.

07:00The whole team is proud, you know, of all the accomplishments of all the Filipinos here in the Philippines and around the world.

07:07We just want to make Filipinos proud.

07:09You've said earlier that it's been stressful for you so far.

07:14How did it change your life when you won the gold?

07:17So we didn't expect that it will be such a big thing.

07:23Harbin 2025 was super professional.

07:27There were 1,200 athletes from something like 34 countries.

07:32And it was really well done by the Chinese, so perfectly organized.

07:36And then we realized the first time, oh, my God, this is a big thing.

07:40This is the real deal.

07:41So we went in there, you know, like, OK, we just want to have fun here.

07:45And then the whole thing exploded.

07:48So a friend of mine, he lives in the US.

07:51He lives in Florida.

07:52And he's going to the same coffee shop every day.

07:54And the barista is a Filipina.

07:56And even she heard of the story.

07:57So it went all over the world, viral through social media.

08:01And, yeah, we want to make it big.

08:03You know how Philippines are everywhere in the world, right?

08:06Everywhere.

08:07Now, let's take a step moment back and reminisce that very pivotal moment against South Korea.

08:13So how did you figure out, you know, what was going through your minds at that time

08:18when you know or maybe feel like we will get this game, we will win this game?

08:22Yeah.

08:23So in curling, the interesting thing is it's like interesting until the last zone.

08:28So the last zone, the Koreans had a chance to score two points.

08:33And if they would have scored two points, they would have won.

08:36So we knew that we need to set up the stones that it will be harder for them.

08:42So curling is like chess on ice.

08:44It's a lot of strategy.

08:46And then we knew, OK, the stone wasn't perfect, but it was OK.

08:50And so they hit the last stone and they missed it.

08:54And then we were like everything exploded.

08:57Emotions came out.

08:58I lost my voice immediately because I was shouting so loud.

09:01So this was absolutely surreal.

09:03And it made us very, very happy to see like the Filipino flags all over.

09:08And then we were on top of there and then receiving the gold medal.

09:11And having response.

09:12Yeah.

09:13It was crazy.

09:14It was crazy.

09:15All right.

09:16Can you tell us about your experience, your training preparations,

09:20to be ready for such a high stake competition?

09:24So to be 100% honest, our training is not an elite training.

09:30Everybody has a side job.

09:33They have families, some of them.

09:36So we sacrifice our free time.

09:38And all the other teams are professional teams like China, Japan, and Korea.

09:43So we just prepared ourselves in the sense of we know how to play

09:50and we just prepared ourselves in the sense of daily training

09:54and getting the mind right.

09:56Because as mentioned before, it's a lot of strategy.

09:59And so we didn't have a lot of pressure.

10:02It will be interesting now since we have the gold.

10:05So suddenly we have pressure.

10:07Now everything changes a little bit.

10:10We were always the underdogs.

10:12And this changes now.

10:13So this will be interesting to see.

10:15Right.

10:16Well, this is a significant milestone not only for your team but also for Philippines.

10:22Now how do you think this victory will impact the sports development in the country?

10:27Yeah.

10:28So again, as you mentioned, it's a historic win.

10:31It's the first Southeast Asian gold ever at the Asian Winter Games.

10:36So that never happened.

10:38And it's the first time.

10:40And so this makes us very proud.

10:43We believe that Filipinos are made for curling.

10:47Because as mentioned before, it's a precision sport.

10:50And we also know it doesn't make sense to build immediately an ice rink.

10:55So our plan was to create awareness that there are Filipinos who are proud of the Philippines

11:01but outside of the Philippines.

11:03Tell our story.

11:04Then create success.

11:07Then next step would be to connect with other Asian countries to bring Filipinos to South Korea, Japan to learn to curl.

11:14And then down the road maybe even have an ice rink one day and have homegrown Filipinos competing.

11:21That would be nice.

11:22Wow, that's a big one.

11:24Yeah.

11:25Now do you have any message to aspiring athletes especially now that curling is well known?

11:32Yeah.

11:33Here in the Philippines.

11:34So any piece of advice or suggestion maybe?

11:38So when I started the sport, I was a 40-year-old overweight guy.

11:43I never curled in my life.

11:45So don't let anybody tell you what you can and can't do.

11:49Just go for it.

11:51Believe in yourself and just go for it.

11:53And look where it takes you.

11:55I'm sitting here with gold.

11:57Paulo, eto na.

11:59He is actually planning to go back into sport.

12:03And I'm telling him, this is your time to shine.

12:07Come to curling.

12:08I think I'm going to get the curling broom.

12:10Exactly.

12:11I'm going to try that sooner or later.

12:15But can you tell us what are your goals as a team after this gold medal?

12:19Are there other competitions or milestones you're aiming for?

12:22So our main goal and actually our only goal is going to the Winter Olympics in 2026 in Milano Cortina.

12:30So that has been the goal from the beginning.

12:33It's still the goal today.

12:35This is just a nice side effect.

12:38But the goal is to go to the Winter Olympics.

12:40And the next competition is the pre-qualifier in autumn and the qualifier in December.

12:47We need to reach third and second place.

12:49And then we can make it to the Olympics.

12:52And it would be a historic moment for Filipinos.

12:55It would be the first team that competed in the Winter Olympics.

12:59So that's our goal.

13:00And that's what we are thriving for.

13:02Wow.

13:03Well, your team has a diverse set of players.

13:06Was it a challenge for you guys to get together and play this sport?

13:10Because this is a team sport.

13:11Yeah.

13:12It's a team sport.

13:13And I think that's one of our main advantages.

13:16We really like each other.

13:18We like hanging around off ice.

13:20It's always fun.

13:22The team spirit is great.

13:24And this is one of the main advantages we have if you compare it to the other teams.

13:29Because the other teams are into the sport, very focused on it.

13:35And they train every day.

13:36And we are having fun out there.

13:38And we could accomplish that as a team.

13:41And the journey doesn't stop here.

13:43And we just like hanging around each other.

13:45One final question.

13:47Well, you have Filipinos, all of you, in the team.

13:50Now, where did you or where do you get to showcase that Filipino blood or Pusong Pinoy every time?

13:57Where or how?

13:58So, it's very easy.

13:59You know, all our moms are Filipinas.

14:02So, we got the Filipino passion in us.

14:04So, our moms are super proud.

14:08And, you know, seeing how excited our moms are on Facebook and posting everything.

14:14So, we can show that there.

14:16Typical Haitian mom.

14:18Exactly.

14:19I was right now in Cebu visiting my family.

14:22And they don't know what curling is.

14:24But they were so proud of it.

14:26And so, that makes me happy.

14:28That's how we show it.

14:29And we are all very proud of your achievement as a Pinoy.

14:33And once again, thank you so much.

14:35Congratulations for joining us today.

14:37Thank you very much for having me.

14:38Congratulations.

14:39And again, salamat.

14:40Salamat.

14:41And once again, congratulations.

SPORT BANTER | Alan Frei ng Philippine Curling Team

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