Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino flies to Harbin on Tuesday to lead a 20-athlete delegation that will see action in the 9th Asian Winter Games.

“I believe our winter sport athletes can deliver, not in terms of medals, but in terms of the exposure and experience that’s needed as we also put weight on our thrust for the Winter Olympics,” Tolentino said on Monday.

The Harbin Games start with Friday’s opening ceremony at the Harbin International Convention Exhibition and Sports Center and will close on 14 February.

The 20 athletes headed for Harbin, China’s foremost winter destination, is the biggest so far for the Philippines, according to Tolentino, who also announced that snowboarder Adrian Lee Tongko suffered a knee injury while training in Hakuba in Japan and won’t be with the team anymore.

Team Philippines is composed of Francis Ceccarelli and Tallulah Proulx in slalom of Alpine skiing, Laetaz Amihan Rabe in free ski slopestyle, big air and halfpipe of snowboarding, as well as short-track speed skater Peter Groseclose, figure skating pair of Isabella Gamez and Alexander Korovin and figure skaters Paolo Borromeo, Cathryn Limketkai and Sofia Frank.

Joining them are the men’s curling team of Benjo Delarmente, Alan Frei, Christian Haller, Enrico Pfister and Marc Pfister and the women’s squad of Anne Bonache, Kathleen Dubberstein, Leilani Dubberstein, Sheila Mariano and Jessica Pfister also of curling.

A total of 1,275 athletes from 34 countries are seeing action in 64 events in 11 sports — alpine skiing, biathlon, cross country, curling, figure skating, freestyle skating, ice hockey, short track speed skating, ski mountaineering, snowboarding and speed skating — in Harbin.

“We are optimistic and confident this team would get all the honing opportunities that would help them qualify for next year’s Winter Olympics,” Tolentino said.

“We’ve already succeeded in winning gold medals in the Summer Olympics, and the thrust is to win medals in the Winter Olympics.”

Italy will host the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina from 6 to 22 February next year in Milano Cortina.

Ricky Lim is the chef de mission in Harbin.

Jim Apelar, president of Philippine Ski and Snowboard Federation received the bad news on Tongko’s knee from his coach Kevin Bernier.

“Kevin (Bernier) told me the swelling did not subside, so, Kevin feels that he may only hurt himself more competing with a swollen right knee,” Apelar said.

“He had a bad fall, unfortunately just a few days from the competition.”