Sweeping change puts Frei's Olympic dream in sight
Entrepreneur and his curling compatriots keep pushing, Xing Wen reports.
An overweight, middle-aged man in Switzerland, with little athletic prowess, decided to pursue the seemingly impossible goal of becoming an Olympian.
It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood comedy, yet, the 42-year-old entrepreneur Alan Frei is on the verge of making it happen for real.
Two years ago, standing at 1.72 meters and weighing 102 kilograms, Frei noticed his health was declining.
With money, time and an entrepreneurial mindset, Frei chose to set a challenging fitness goal to give his weight loss journey a clear purpose.
And what's more challenging than becoming an Olympian?
He told everyone around him about his newfound dream and then began to take action. He engaged a lawyer to help with researching all the regulatory requirements.
"You have no chance for Switzerland, but you have a small chance for the Winter Olympics, representing the Philippines in cross-country skiing," the lawyer told Frei, whose mother is Filipino.
It wasn't long before he discovered he had "zero talent" for a sporting career on skis.
At the same time, a trio of seasoned Swiss-Filipino curlers — electrician Enrico Pfister, his brother and construction worker Marc Pfister, and banker Christian Haller, who previously competed at world championships for Switzerland — were searching for a fourth member to establish a Philippines men's curling team. They reached out to Frei through email after they heard about his unlikely Olympic quest.
"I have never curled in my life, but you know, I have no talent in cross-country skiing, so let me try curling," Frei explained his thought process. He decided to give it a try immediately.
