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Why Olympic Curling Stones Are So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider - Video học tiếng Anh
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Why Olympic Curling Stones Are So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider
Why Olympic Curling Stones Are So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider
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Субтитры (194)
0:01
Narrator: Using rare granite
0:03
from just one island in the world,
0:05
experienced stonemasons turn these giant boulders
0:08
into hundreds of uniform curling stones.
0:12
But these aren't just any curling stones.
0:15
They're the only ones allowed in the Olympic Games.
0:18
A single stone certified for the Olympics costs over $600.
0:23
That makes a full set of 16 stones worth $9,600.
0:29
So, how are Olympic curling stones made?
0:32
And why are they so expensive?
0:37
Since 2006, every curling stone
0:40
used in the Olympic Winter Games has come from here.
0:44
It's produced stones since 1851.
0:46
But today, there are just 10 people
0:48
in the world who make them.
0:51
Mark: They love what they do.
0:52
They're very passionate about it
0:54
because they know that this particular
0:56
block of granite they're working on
0:57
that becomes a curling stone
0:59
could be the stone that's thrown
1:00
for the gold medal at the Olympic Games.
1:02
It could be the stone that decides a world championship.
1:06
Narrator: Every stone comes from one tiny island
1:08
off the coast of Scotland.
1:11
For over a century, masons have ventured
1:13
to Ailsa Craig island to harvest granite for curling stones.
1:18
Until its lease expires in 2050,
1:20
Kays is the only company in the world
1:22
with permission to harvest granite here.
1:25
And for curling, Ailsa Craig's granite structure
1:27
is the gold standard.
1:30
But getting granite to the mainland is far from simple.
1:34
Well, the harvesting process
1:35
is a logistical work of art, I think.
1:40
There is nothing on the island, as you say.
1:41
It's uninhabited. There's no water supply
1:44
other than some running water
1:45
from the rivers and streams on the island.
1:48
There's no electricity supply.
1:49
So we have to take absolutely everything with us.
1:53
Narrator: Kays uses two types of granite
1:55
from the island to produce curling stones.
1:57
First, there's blue hone granite,
1:59
which makes up the layer that runs along the ice.
2:03
Then common green is used for the part
2:05
that strikes other stones.
2:07
This is Ailsa Craig common green granite.
2:09
So this makes up the full body of the stone.
2:12
You can also see this slightly lighter,
2:13
grayer-color granite inside,
2:15
and this is Ailsa Craig blue hone.
2:18
Narrator: The rock is densely constructed,
2:20
thanks to how well its fine-grained crystals
2:23
and the feldspar interlock.
2:25
This makes the stone resilient.
2:27
While other rocks might crack or splinter,
2:29
Ailsa Craig granite stays intact
2:31
amid cold temperatures and collisions.
2:34
Most other rocks will have imperfections,
2:37
like veins that cut through the stone.
2:39
And while it's not free from weaknesses,
2:41
there aren't many throughout Ailsa Craig rock.
2:44
Weaknesses make it more likely
2:46
a stone will fracture upon hard impact,
2:49
something that would upend a curling game.
2:53
Before Kays can begin making stones,
2:56
each rock is cut into slabs.
2:58
But not all the granite the company harvests
3:00
is suitable for a curling stone.
3:03
Sometimes areas of a slab have small imperfections
3:06
that could cause it to erode or impact the game.
3:09
Mark: It's generally because there's a flaw
3:11
or a fissure or a crack or something in it.
3:14
Narrator: This is where the eye of the masons comes in.
3:18
Throughout the process, they assess the granite
3:20
and confirm it satisfies Olympic requirements.
3:24
Mark: The slab thickness, we are looking for
3:25
145 millimeters, you know, 14.5 centimeters, thick.
3:29
Then that gives us the ideal depth for coring,
3:32
which then allows us to shape the stone
3:34
while retaining the weight.
3:36
Narrator: From the slab, Kays marks
3:38
only the best parts worth coring,
3:40
which are the areas it'll eventually shape into stones.
3:44
Mark: We've gone to a lot of time and effort
3:46
to bring this resource from an island
3:47
over to the mainland that we want to make
3:50
the most effective use out of it.
3:52
We can get boulders off the island
3:54
that can be in the region of 5 to 7 tonnes.
3:56
They will yield way more than five or six cheeses per tonne.
4:00
But if we average it out across a whole harvest,
4:03
then if we get around six cheeses per tonne,
4:05
we're doing pretty well.
4:07
Narrator: They call them cheeses,
4:08
for no clear reason other than:
4:10
Mark: I suppose in one respect, they maybe look
4:12
like a Babybel cheese or something like that.
4:15
I've never really thought about it too deeply, to be honest.
4:20
Narrator: While the process today
4:21
largely depends on machines,
4:23
it needs experienced craftspeople to see each stage through.
4:28
Mark: The cutting process or the coring process
4:30
is a skill and an art in itself.
4:33
So while it's semiautomatic in terms of feeding itself in,
4:36
the speed is manually controlled,
4:38
and that's where the skill of the operator comes in.
4:41
Narrator: After each cheese has been cored,
4:43
masons chip away the excess stone around the corners
4:46
and prepare it for shaping.
4:48
The International Olympic Committee
4:50
determines the size, shape,
4:52
and weight of each stone for the games.
4:55
Before the stone reaches its final shape,
4:58
masons fit the blue hone granite
5:00
into the common green body.
5:04
The stone itself weighs 40 pounds,
5:06
plus another pound for the handle.
5:09
After it reaches its final form,
5:11
it's time to polish it.
5:14
Each stone needs to be uniform in weight,
5:17
size, and running surface.
5:20
The running surface on the bottom
5:21
determines how much the stone curls.
5:24
To curl, there needs to be friction
5:26
between the ice and the stone.
5:29
That roughness is achieved
5:30
by the experienced hand of a mason.
5:36
Kays stores granite over time,
5:38
returning to Ailsa Craig about once a decade.
5:42
Other producers harvest granite
5:44
from the Trefor Quarry in Wales.
5:46
Kays once sourced granite from Trefor, too.
5:49
But Mark says quality-control issues turned it away.
5:53
And it didn't hurt that the World Curling Federation
5:56
preferred Ailsa Craig stones.
5:58
Mark: They found that the Kays stones with the insert,
6:01
the blue hone insert, were the best,
6:03
because they also discovered that having a curling stone
6:06
that's not got a blue hone insert will pit.
6:09
It has a certain porosity, it will pull in water,
6:13
and water and ice will then freeze.
6:14
When water freezes, it expands;
6:16
leads to the detriment or the damage to the stone.
6:20
Narrator: While curling has recently
6:21
skyrocketed in popularity, demand for stones
6:25
has fluctuated since the game began.
6:28
Curling is believed to have started in Scotland,
6:30
but today, Canada is the most successful team
6:33
in the history of curling.
6:35
Curling here goes back to the late 19th century ...
6:39
Clip: A curling stone gets some last-minute polishing.
6:42
Narrator: When many of the Scots who immigrated to Canada
6:44
brought the game with them.
6:46
By the '50s, Canada was building
6:48
hundreds of curling rinks.
6:50
Now retired, Jimmy Wyllie worked at Kays during this period
6:53
and saw the company thrive before demand dropped again.
6:57
Jimmy: When all of these new ice rinks in Canada
6:59
were satisfied, the demand fell off dramatically.
7:03
So we went from 25, 30 people
7:05
down to about between five and 10 people.
7:11
Narrator: A major component that's kept the game —
7:14
and Kays — alive today: the Winter Olympics.
7:18
Mark: When curling was put back into the Olympics,
7:20
it was great.
7:21
It was a really — it was a momentous moment
7:24
in terms of a curling-stone manufacturer,
7:26
because it suddenly opened curling up to the world.
7:29
During 1990, there was only 25 countries in the world
7:33
that were in any way involved in curling.
7:35
And now, 20 years later, that's almost tripled.
7:38
Narrator: As of 2022, 67 countries compete in curling.
7:43
Naturally, that's created an uptick in demand for stones,
7:46
which has carried over into their price.
7:48
Mark: We have increased our sales,
7:50
which is really, really good news.
7:52
And having said that, we've also increased our cost,
7:54
because we have to go back for granite more frequently
7:58
to satisfy the demand.
8:00
Narrator: In 2000, Kays harvested
8:02
about 1,500 metric tons of common green
8:05
and about 300 metric tons of blue hone.
8:08
13 years later, it took 2,500 metric tons of common green
8:12
and 500 metric tons of blue hone.
8:15
Fortunately for the growing interest in the sport,
8:17
and for the only supplier of Olympic curling stones,
8:20
supply isn't a problem.
8:23
Mark: The last harvest, in November 2020,
8:25
we took less than 0.01% of the island.
8:30
So we're scratching the surface.
8:32
The whole island is made of granite.
8:34
We're not making that big a dent in it.
