"I'm super proud of my team”: Physical: Asia alum Mark Striegl praises Team Philippines' performance on the show

Physical: Asia alum Mark Mugen Striegl recently opened up about Team Philippines’ performance on the show. The Mixed martial arts champion expressed pride and gratitude and admitted that he is proud of the performance that Team Philippines had displayed on the Netflix show. 

Team Philippines included Mark Striegl, Ray Querubin, eight-division world champion athlete Manny Pacquiao, CrossFit athlete Lara Liwanag, hurdler Robyn Brown, rugby player Justin Coveney and CrossFit athlete Justin Hernandez. Hernandez was added to the team after Pacquiao's exit.

While speaking to ABS-CBN, Mark Mugen said as he reflected on the team’s performance on the show, 

"I'm super proud of my team, all my teammates, you know, we tried our hardest.”

Physical: Asia alum Mark Striegl reflects on Team Philippines' performance

During the exclusive interview with ABS-CBN News, the Physical: Asia alum stated, 

“And of course, you know, there's always going to be hindsight bias. You know, I wish we could have done this thing better or a little bit like this. But, you know, ultimately, super proud of everybody. We gave it everything we had.”

Striegl concluded by saying how it has been wild and he is just grateful for all the support for Team Philippines. Striegl shared some insight on his experience of Team Philippines getting together in South Korea. 

“It was awesome, you know, everyone was just trying to do their best and we just wanted to represent the country and fight hard and, you know, everyone was kind and we all clicked and we all got together quickly and got to know one another fast," he said.

Mark Striegl called the Death Challenge “pretty brutal”

Mark Striegl was asked about the toughest challenge for him on the show, and the athlete chose the death match challenge. The Physical: Asia alum displayed great sportsmanship as he managed to keep up a good fight for possession of the ball against Thai rugby player Sunny Kerdkao Wechokittikorn. 

“Honestly, probably the ball wrestling, that was probably the hardest one for me, just because Sunny is so, so big, you know, like, it was, and I didn't expect him to get to the ball so fast every time, you know, but that's his game rugby, right?," he asked.

The MMA athlete further pointed out how he managed to keep a calm expression during the hanging endurance challenge for nearly three hours. 

"That was pretty brutal. Yeah, it was just a mind game, you know, my feet were in a lot of pain. I was just trying to block out the pain and look calm, You know, also because if you start exerting force and you start acting, you start showing that you're in pain, which I was, then the body is going to follow too. So it was really just like a mind game the whole time and just trying to keep myself cool and breathe through everything," he explained.

Stay tuned for more updates.