THE country is fielding a total of 20 athletes to the ninth edition of the Asian Winter Games that China is hosting for the third time from February 7 to 14 in the winter resort city of Harbin.<\/p>\n
The mission? To start setting the stage for a first-ever Winter Olympics medal for the Philippines.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve already accomplished the dream in the Summer Olympics\u2014three gold medals in consecutive games,\u201d said Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham \u201cBambol\u201d Tolentino on New Year\u2019s Day Wednesday. \u201cAnd that dream we want to also achieve in the Winter Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are no available accurate records as to how many Filipino winter sports athletes competed in the first eight editions of the Asian Winter Games, but Tolentino believed the team to Harbin should be the biggest thus far.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd our athletes are competing in six of the 11 sports on the Harbin program,\u201d Tolentino said.<\/p>\n
Curling, now one of the most-watched winter sports discipline, will have the most number of athletes in Harbin with 10 athletes\u2014 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.<\/p>\n
The Curling Winter Sports of the Philippines was established late last year to organize the discipline\u2019s ranks with the new group joining Philippine Skating Union and Philippine Ski and Snowboarding Association in the POC roster.<\/p>\n
The other members of Team Philippines managed by chef de mission Richard Lim are Paolo Borromeo, Aleksandr Korovin, Cathryn Limketkai, Isabella Marie Gamez and Sofia Lexi Jacqueline 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<\/p>\n
Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo won the Philippines\u2019 first Summer Olympics gold medal in Tokyo 2020 and gymnast Carlos Yulo captured two gold medals in Paris 2024, both under Tolentino\u2019s watch at the POC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Winter Olympics are as extremely tough as the Summer Olympics, but we have proven that it could be done,\u201d Tolentino vowed.<\/p>\n
Italy will host the 25th edition of the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo from February 6 to 22 next year.<\/p>\n
Sixty-four events will be contested in Harbin, which was host in 1996, the second time after Changchun 2007 where China first organized the games.<\/p>\n
Japan has been the dominant team in the games, followed by China and Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE country is fielding a total of 20 athletes to the ninth edition of the Asian Winter Games that China is hosting for the third time from February 7 to 14 in the winter resort city of Harbin. The mission? To start setting the stage for a first-ever Winter Olympics medal for the Philippines. \u201cWe\u2019ve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[134],"class_list":["post-2373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-philippine-olympic-committee"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t