On Monday, thousands gathered at Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire for the annual Gloucester Cheese Rolling race, which involves participants chasing a wheel of cheese 200 yards (182.88m) down the 50 per cent gradient hill. In this year’s men’s race, American YouTuber and musician IShowSpeed, whose real name is Darren Jason Watkins Jr., finished fourth overall.
Despite a top-five finish, IShowSpeed was transported to hospital with a leg fracture after his top-five finish. The YouTuber, who has nearly 25 million subscribers, told BBC News that the race had aggravated a previous leg injury, but said his experience was well worth it.
🚨| WATCH: Speed got injured at the cheese rolling event but plans to try again next year 😂 pic.twitter.com/VXwW48Dew4
— Speedy HQ (@iShowSpeedHQ) May 27, 2024
“It looks scary, but once you start sliding, you’re like, ‘You know what, I can do this,’” he said. “I want to do it again, because I know how to win now.” When asked whether he would do it again, he replied: “Hell, yeah!”
The annual tradition in Brockworth draws more than 10,000 people each year to see participants run, tumble and fall down the steep hill to win a wheel of double Gloucester cheese.
The champion of the men’s downhill race was Tom Kopke, 22, from Munich. The women’s race was won by Abby Lampe, 23, from North Carolina, who picked up a double Gloucester cheese wheel for the second time, having first won in 2022. Hundreds of people participated in the chaotic event, which includes six races in the men’s, women’s and children’s categories.
US woman Abby Lampe WINS Women’s Cheese Rolling race for a second time. Abby, from North Carolina, rolled to victory in the wacky annual event held on Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire today (May 27). She also took the title in 2022. #Cheeserolling #cheeseroll @abby_lampe pic.twitter.com/WRn2ydxw6x
— Urban Pictures (@Urban_Pictures) May 27, 2024
Last year, British Columbia’s Delaney Irving won the women’s race, but didn’t find out until she woke up in the medical tent after the event. Since 1826, competitors have lined up atop Cooper’s Hill on the last Monday of May to chase a 3-kg cheese wheel—said to reach speeds of 100 km/h—in a frenzied free-for-all to the bottom.
