The Philippines is sending a team of 20 athletes to the ninth edition of the Asian Winter Games, hosted by China for the third time from February 7 to 14 in the winter resort city of Harbin.
The mission? To lay the groundwork for the country’s first-ever Winter Olympics medal.
“We’ve already accomplished the dream in the Summer Olympics—three gold medals in consecutive games,” said Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino on New Year’s Day Wednesday.
“And that dream we want to also achieve in the Winter Olympics.”
Although accurate records are unavailable regarding the number of Filipino athletes who competed in the first eight editions of the Asian Winter Games, Tolentino believes the Harbin delegation is the largest thus far.
“And our athletes are competing in six of the 11 sports on the Harbin program,” Tolentino added.
Curling, one of the most-watched winter sports disciplines, will feature the largest contingent with 10 athletes: Marc Angelo Pfister, Enrico Gabriel Pfister, Christian Patrick Haller, Alan Beat Frei, Jessica Pfister, Benjo Delarmente, Kathleen Dubberstein, Leilani Dubberstein, Sheila Mariano, and Anne Marie Bonache.
The Curling Winter Sports of the Philippines was established late last year to formalize and organize the discipline, joining the Philippine Skating Union and the Philippine Ski and Snowboarding Association under the POC roster.
The remaining members of Team Philippines, led by chef de mission Richard Lim, include Paolo Borromeo, Aleksandr Korovin, Cathryn Limketkai, Isabella Marie Gamez, and Sofia Frank in figure skating; Francis Ceccarelli and Talullah Proulx in Alpine skiing; Laetaz Amihan Rabe in freestyle skiing; Peter Joseph Groseclose in short track speed skating; and Adrian Tongco in snowboarding.
Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo claimed the Philippines’ first Summer Olympics gold medal in Tokyo 2020, while gymnast Carlos Yulo secured two gold medals in Paris 2024—both under Tolentino’s leadership at the POC.
“The Winter Olympics are just as challenging as the Summer Olympics, but we’ve proven that success is possible,” Tolentino vowed.
The 25th edition of the Winter Olympics will take place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, from February 6 to 22 next year.
Sixty-four events will be contested in Harbin, which previously hosted the games in 1996. This marks the second time the games are being held in China, with the first hosted in Changchun in 2007.
Japan has historically dominated the Asian Winter Games, followed by China and Kazakhstan.
