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The scoreboard was activated to simulate game-like conditions for the curlers. Rocks were thrown. Ice was swept. Measurements were taken. Broom fabrics were analyzed.

“We were able to see, quite rapidly, that some of the brooms that the athletes had identified — that they felt did not fit the scope of the sport — really, they could do anything they wanted with them,” Poirier says.

Says Homenick: “If you needed the stone to go a little to the left, you could do that, if it was going too much to the left, you could move it back to the right with these brooms.

“All of the athletes had an issue with the brooms, because it took away the art of shot-making. None of them wanted their performance based on a product they had purchased.”

Homenick found that “Nylon Oxford 420D,” an unremarkable fabric that, unlike some of its more abrasive cousins, didn’t mark up the ice, did the job of sweeping as it was traditionally conceived without diminishing the role of the rock thrower.

“Nylon Oxford 420D is a general fabric that they can use across a whole series of brooms that are available now,” Homenick says.

Curling Canada and the World Curling Federation, with the blessing of the world’s best players, announced over the weekend that “Nylon Oxford 420D” will be the standardized fabric for broom-heads for all championship level events. Players found using a broom that doesn’t conform will be disqualified from the competition while their team will forfeit the game. A second offence will incur a year-long ban from all WCF-sanctioned events.