LEWISBURG, Pa. — On a beautiful fall day at Bucknell University, sophomore Susan Dudt has winter and ice on her mind. She's thinking about curling.
"On my team, I play lead, which is I throw the first two stones, and then I sweep the rest of the stones," Dudt explained.
In curling, players slide stones on a sheet of ice towards a target area. It's similar to shuffleboard, and it's a sport Dudt has been involved with for most of her life.
"My entire family curls, so I started curling when I was 5, obviously not that competitively, but I definitely got into competitive curling pretty young just because my brothers were already competing."
Dudt is a mechanical engineering major at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, and later this week, she will travel to Omaha, Nebraska, for the U.S. Olympic team trials for curling. Her team will be the youngest one there.
"It's really exciting because all of our goals is to make it to the Olympics eventually. So even if it doesn't happen this year, we know we can get there in the future."
Six teams will compete at the Olympic trials, which is a round-robin tournament.
"You have a one in six chance! Yeah! How exciting is that? It's really exciting!"
And it's a family affair for the Dudt family from the Philadelphia area. Susan's older brother Daniel is competing at the Olympic trials, too. Daniel is a Bucknell University graduate.
"It's exciting just because it is a family sport, and I'm excited that he gets to be there as well."
If they qualify for Team USA, Susan and her squad will head to the 2022 winter Olympics next February in Beijing, China.