England is known for its excellence in many sports: football — or soccer, as we call it here — rugby, and cricket, to name a few. One lesser-known sport, however, is cheese-rolling. Each year in the village of Brockworth, England, hundreds of people gather to watch competitors chase a seven-or-so pound wheel of Double Gloucester down Cooper’s Hill. The first racer to catch the wheel or cross the finish line wins and may keep the cheese.
The event is thought to have begun at least 600 years ago as a pagan festival, and today it is classed as an extreme sport. Why? Because it is surprisingly dangerous. As the steepest slope in Gloucester, Coopers Hill stands 590 feet tall and is nearly vertical. The grass on the hill is tangled with pebbles, sticks, and stinging nettles. Additionally, the cheese wheel can travel at a speed of up to 70 miles per hour. Contestants frequently fall, tumbling with splayed limbs down the hill. Volunteer medics stand by waiting to help. Local authorities, while not wishing to prevent the event from occurring entirely, have deemed the sport “unsafe” and warn participants that they compete at their own risk. Past injuries include concussions, sprains, and broken bones. To date, no one has died participating.
The race is free to enter and requires no registration, and several rounds are held throughout the day. Rounds have been classified in past years as men’s, women’s, adult mixed uphill, under-11s, and over-12s. All races for minors are competed uphill for safety reasons. As the sport gains fame, despite the serious health perils, people have begun traveling from around the world to compete. Winners in 2025 included German YouTuber Tom Kopke, British Ava Sender Logan — who competed to raise money for charity — and New Zealander Byron Smith.
While St. Olaf has many steep hills and athletic students, it would be inadvisable to bring cheese-rolling to campus.
