In Great Britain today, a popular race is held, unique in the world, where competitors race to catch a wheel of cheese weighing about three kilograms that is released down a steep slope, and the winner gets the right to keep that one wheel of cheese as a prize.
Races have been held at Coopers Hill, about 160 miles west of London, since 1826, but the sport of cheese racing is believed to be much older.
The event itself often comes with security issues. Few competitors manage to stay on their feet all the way to the end of the 180m downhill.
This year's competition venue is particularly slippery and muddy after the recent rain. Members of the local rugby club lined up at the bottom to catch competitors who tumbled.
Dozens of children and adults competed in safer and slower, but no less strenuous versions of the race, which is traditionally held at the end of May.
Around 32 miles away in the town of Tetbury, competitors carried sacks of wool weighing up to 27 kilograms on a 220 meter course up and down the steep Gumstol Hill.
Those races have been held since 1972, and the organizers refer to a local tradition that dates back to the 17th century in that city.
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