Team Thailand © World Curling / Logan Hannigan-Downs

Author

Michael Houston

20 October 2025

Thai time to impress at first World Curling event as a team

Author Malcolm Gladwell once suggested in his book Outliers, that it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to become an expert.

While an oversimplification, by Gladwell’s estimation, the Thai curling team had around 9,800 hours still to go when they made their international debut.

From idea to ice in three months

When Thai Curling Association President Suwanna Silpa-Archa made the decision to enter men’s, women’s and mixed doubles teams at the 2025 Asian Winter Games, the teams did not yet exist. It was November – just three months before heading to Harbin, China.

For Silpa-Archa, it meant finding teams fast. The best way to do that was recruiting from within. She used her contacts to encourage those closest to her to try the sport and soon, practice would start in Bangkok.

Most players hailed from the capital city as well as nearby Pattaya. Most notable of all of these was Chanatip Sonkham, an Olympic bronze medallist in taekwondo and the 2013 world champion in the sport. She would team up with Teekawin Jearateerawit in the mixed doubles competition.

The President also turned to her sister, Kanya Natchanarong, who would skip the women’s team in Harbin.

YouTube lessons and hockey ice

A rag-tag group of newbies who had never curled before had to learn the hard way too. With no time to properly recruit a coach before the Asian Winter Games, the players taught themselves by watching YouTube videos and trained mostly on hockey ice, with a 10-day stint in Korea on curling ice before Harbin.

There, it was “kindergarten meeting the top of the world” according to Teekawin Jearateerawit, who estimated their skill level was “two or three” out of ten, and gave his team “zero” when it came to strategy.

“We just tried to do our best to learn everything, including rules and manners,” he said, to an eruption of laughs.

While Thai people are usually known for their politeness, that etiquette did not translate immediately to the ice. The players even joked that they “broke all rules possible during the game”, unintentionally.

“We had warnings, but luckily I think the culture of curling, everyone is nice to us and even though we’re the newbies, everyone is very encouraging and nice to us and they know that it’s our first time,” added Teekawin.

“If we did this in another sport, we might have been made to quit, but in curling, everyone’s so nice and they try to teach us.”

Welcome to the curling family

Throughout their short journey to China, they consistently felt the support of the curling community. Prior to the tournament, the teams were told by a photographer to be aware of throwing the correct colour of stone. Kanya Natchanarong then laughs at this, reminding them that this happened in one of the matches in Harbin, but their opponents were gracious enough to allow the stone to come back up before it was released.

While the men’s team would not find a victory on their debut, it was a strong showing in the mixed doubles. Thailand would take the early lead against eventual winners Japan, but would end up on the wrong end of a 12-2 thrashing.

“Because mixed doubles was the first curling event, we were the first to represent Thailand in curling,” said Teekawin.

“In the first game, I think we played good, and we got our first point on the first end. After that, the storm was coming. They are very, very good.

“They know that we are beginners and the first time I had to measure the distance of the stone, the Japanese player, he told me where I have to stand, which was nice. We lost very heavily, but that was very memorable.”

Small victories and big smiles

But the pair were not there just to make up the numbers. They smashed Kuwait 12-3 and then defeated Mongolia 10-5. A crunch match between them and Hong Kong would determine if Thailand could make the playoffs in their first tournament, but they would end with a 14-5 defeat. Any glimmer of hope then ended with a 12-0 loss to Chinese Taipei.

“After the match, the Hong Kong team, spoke with us and they asked how long we were a team and we said three months,” added Teekawin, “They were telling us ‘You did well!’. We really appreciated that.”

Tears of joy in Harbin

Leading the women’s rink, Natchanarong found the tournament to be an emotional experience.

“We had to compete with the whole of China,” she said, as they faced the daunting task of making their debut against the hosts in what resulted in a 19-1 loss.

“We were so excited, but we didn’t really know how to beat them and after six ends, we finally got one. That one point made me cry.

“The Chinese people were asking why are you smiling? You smile like you won, but it was tears of joy because we got one point from them, that’s all, that’s all I wanted.”

While running Hong Kong China a little close, the rest of the tournament would prove difficult for Thailand – aside from a 10-1 victory over Qatar to claim their first victory.

“When we won, I cried and the Qatar team hugged me and asked why I was crying. And I said I didn’t think we were going to win,” added Natchanarong.

“I saw the match screen [at the halfway stage] and then I prayed and asked if we could win, just at least one match.

“I didn’t try to get more excited. I had to help my teammates to not be too nervous and we held each other and told ourselves we can do this.”

Growing the game at home

For Teekawin, his job did not end with the mixed doubles. With a small team heading to Harbin, he acted as the coach for both men’s and women’s teams. He recalls the Chinese skip throwing stones away in the sixth end against the men’s team as a sign of sportsmanship to allow Thailand to take one point against them.

The Thai skip, Pongsak Manhattanasakul, said if the stone did not make it into the house he would “take a flight today straight back home”. Fortunately, he made the draw for one.

Between the three teams, Thailand won three matches at the Asian Winter Games. However, a lot has changed for the nation since then. Most importantly, the Thai Curling Association hired a coach – “Jimmy” Lee Je-Ho who has been a national team coach for his home nation, Korea.

Ice training is now over two hours, followed by two hours of work in the gym and Natchanarong believes the players are “improving every day”, noting that strategy has been a key focus.

“I think we have a little bit more experience, but our willing to win has expanded,” said Teekawin, “So, we will try our best, because with the coach, we know how we want to play.”

Eyes on Minnesota

This next opportunity to rack up more experience and more wins will come at the United States Steel Pan Continental Curling Championships, with familiar opponents on the continent, as well as those in the Americas and Africa.

Natchanarong says the team will be like a “new baby trying to walk” and would assess the competition “game-by-game”.

“I think this is not only our first step in curling, we want to be a good example to another curling generation too,” she said, “So the result of this competition is not even about being good, but it will be a good step for curling in Thailand.”

“We are very lucky because everyone is so passionate about the sport,” added Teekawin, who will skip the men’s team in Minnesota.

“We’re from different backgrounds, but we have one goal – we want to make the team better. It’s very hard for us but we have teamwork.

“In every competition it’s a memorable experience for us and when we think back about it, it’s very impressive.

“And it’s going to be with us for our whole life.”

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