thecages

Only in America.

Yesterday(4th of July) saw the 91st time that speed-eating athletes from around the world
converged on Coney Island for the annual Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest.

Here's the blurb

Four-time world champion Takeru Kobayashi of Japan will look to make history as he defends his title against top eaters from around the globe.

And he did; I saw it on ESPN[1] with images courtesy of Fox Sports.

In the end it was a contest between Kobayashi and US/Irish hometown hero Joey Chestnut.
After 5 straight wins by the dimunitive foreigner the crowd were hungry(no, ravenous) for a US victory and were chanting 'Joey! Joey!' throughout.
This did not seem to bother the champ (who gave a post-match interview through a translator) as he worked his way through the pile of dawgs using a variety of pro-eating techniques including (I shit you not) The Tokyo Two[2] and his patented Solomon method[3].









[1] The most bizarre thing about all of this is not the contest(which is totally plausible) but how ESPN approach it.
They pull in some "knowledgable" commentators with Baseball-voices who proceed to describe the contestants as "athletes" and discuss training regimes and contest strategies.
My favourite line went something like this: "Well Bob, with Kobayashi now firmly in the lead he must be thinking about bettering that world record of his - if he can keep this up and put in a few four-dog minutes he could make it."
They've defined a term for peak performance - a four-dog minute. Incredible.

[2] Eating two dawgs at once

[3] Breaking the wiener in two and stuffing both halves in his mouth before soaking the bun in water to compact it.