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‘Curl Runnings’: The Philippines champion curlers targeting the Winter Olympics

The Philippines is not a location you would usually associate with curling, but the country’s new men’s curling team are determined to make an impact on the Olympic stage – and they’ve already made history.

The men's curling team won the country's first ever gold medal at the Asian Winter Games, less than two years after they were formed. They’ve now set their sights on qualifying for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy.

Alan Frei – who is one of the team’s members based in Switzerland – tells Sportshour’s Shabnam Younus-Jewell about how he discovered the sport when his doctor told him to lose weight and what the reaction has been like to their historic triumph.

Image: Philippines' team members celebrate after winning the men's gold medal game between Philippines and South Korea during the Harbin 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang province on February 14, 2025. (Photo by Jade Gao / AFP via Getty Images)

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7 minutes