Canadian Woman Gets Knocked Unconscious During Cheese Rolling Contest, Wins Anyway

19-year-old Canadian Delaney Irving entered the annual tumbling race on a whim.

Double Gloucester cheese is a hard cow’s milk cheese that has a nutty flavor which pairs well with brown ales or rich ports. Although it’s aged longer and has a stronger taste than Single Gloucester, it’s also reasonably easy to find in England — which means you don’t have to throw yourself down an impossibly steep hill if you want to try it.

Despite its widespread availability, every year hundreds of fearless people turn up at Cooper’s Hill near Gloucester for the annual cheese-rolling race. If you’re lucky, you’ll leave the event dazed, dizzy, and in possession of the seven-pound wheel of Double Gloucester that goes to the winner. If you’re less lucky, you’ll pick up scrapes, bruises, and perhaps even a minor brain injury.

The winner of the women’s cheese rolling race this year was Delaney Irving, a 19-year-old Canadian who was finishing up a six-week trip through Europe. When she happened to be in Gloucester on the day of the race, she decided that she’d enter the competition. “We didn't really prepare for it at all," she told CTV News earlier this week. "All we did to prepare was, my friend and I took turns jumping on our hotel bed and doing a roll as best as we could."

Even England’s worst hotel beds can’t replicate the head-swimmingly steep incline of Cooper’s Hill: Irving told the outlet that videos she’d watched of previous races didn’t prepare her for how steep it actually was. She wasn’t put off though, and was among those who chased the rolling wheel of cheese down the hill… and that’s about all she remembers.

Irving was knocked unconscious as she rolled down the hill, and when she finally came to, she was in the medical tent. She also had a wheel of cheese on her lap because, despite being completely out of it, she won her race. “I remember running, then bumping my head, and then I woke up in the tent,” she said, according to the Associated Press. “I still don’t really believe it, but it feels great.”

She was taken for a CT scan after the race and it did not show any serious injuries — which surprised her mother. “[The scan is] clear and she's good,” Krista Endrizzi told CTV. “I can't believe that, because it looks like she shouldn't be OK."

Related: How to Talk About Cheese Like You Know What You're Talking About

Irving is the first Canadian to win the women’s race at Cooper’s Hill. Last year’s winner was Abby Lampe, a then 21-year-old North Carolina State University graduate. She was the first American woman to take home that coveted cheese wheel and, unlike this year’s winners, she actually did try to prep for the event.

“I went to Dorothea Dix Park, which is a local park by Raleigh, and I rolled down some hills trying to figure out the best way to roll down a hill," she said after her win. "And I thought it was fun and all, but like, in comparison to Cooper's Hill, it was lightweight. There was no comparison.”

Despite being literally knocked unconscious trying to win several pounds of cheese, Irving told CTV News that she’s “not a huge fan” of that particular dairy product. “But I will definitely eat this cheese," she added.

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