JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
You may not even know that the Winter Olympics are just 10 weeks away, but for athletes, now is crunch time. They are battling to secure spots on the U.S. team, and there are superfans following every step on the journey. NPR's Pien Huang met some at the U.S. curling Olympic team trials in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: It's very cold in the Sanford PREMIER Center, where the floor is a sheet of ice. On the playing field, curlers slide big stones from one end to the other, aiming for the targets, which are concentric circles in red, white and blue.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: (Chanting) USA, USA, USA.
HUANG: The loudest fans are some of the youngest.
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Hey, how about this? How about if you're in elementary school, let's make some noise.
(CHEERING)
HUANG: Several hundred kids on a school field trip cheer as top U.S. curlers fight for a chance to compete in the upcoming Winter Olympics. Bernie Wiegand from Huntsville, Alabama, is here to serve as a good luck charm for his team.
BERNIE WIEGAND: I feel that my presence definitely helps, although the skill has definitely rested with the boys.
HUANG: The boys meaning Team Shuster, whose captain John Shuster has represented the U.S. at every Winter Olympics since 2006.
WIEGAND: I just try to keep a positive attitude, and I have to learn all the cheers (laughter).
HUANG: But Team Shuster's luck runs out. They lose to Team Casper in the finals, a group of 20-somethings who were in elementary school themselves when Shuster made his first Olympics. Brie Dumais and her friends flew in from Arizona.
BRIE DUMAIS: So Tucson curling club, just the 12 of us having a good time.
HUANG: They're wearing special hats they bought on Etsy, which mimic the stones used in curling.
DUMAIS: So it's gray knitted on the bottom. The top has the handle that the curlers actually release when they are letting the stone go across the ice. So it's that on our head (laughter).
HUANG: In the game, the curling stones actually weigh about 40 pounds each. Cynthia Benning is a superfan from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She's ringing her cowbell for good shots.
(SOUNDBITE OF COWBELL RINGING)
HUANG: She says curling is strategic, like chess on ice, and it's a lot harder than it looks.
CYNTHIA BENNING: So it takes a lot of balance and coordination, athleticism.
HUANG: Players follow the stones down the ice, sweeping vigorously to guide them to a precise landing.
BENNING: They have to go really hard on that broom. It's - I mean, it's exhausting just watching them sweep sometimes.
HUANG: The winning teams now head to the Olympic qualifiers in Canada next month. They'll have to finish in the top two spots to make it to the Olympics in February in Milan Cortina.
(CHEERING)
HUANG: Pien Huang, NPR News, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
(SOUNDBITE OF JUICE WRLD SONG, "THE LIGHT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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