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Olympic granite
The Guardian
|February 13, 2026
Scottish firm that cornered market on curling stones
'It takes 60m years and about six hours to make a curling stone," shouted Ricky English above the whine of the lathes. The operations manager at Kays Scotland was surrounded by wheels of ancient granite in varying states of refinement.
It is a small business with a big responsibility: the only factory in the world to supply the Winter Olympics with the curling stones used in its events.
Competitors do not travel with their own stones, which weigh about 18kg (40lbs) each, with 16 required for a game. Instead, this year 132 stones were crafted in the East Ayrshire town of Mauchline and shipped to northern Italy.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 13, 2026-Ausgabe von The Guardian.
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