It was a local Nathan’s contest, and it was the same dogs and rules as the big Nathan’s show. Sort of a regional prelim for Joey Chestnut. The record is ‘official’.
That being said, Kobayeshi is still going to beat Joey Chesnut in NY… Chestnut looks like he is fighting it near the end when he eats. Kobayeshi never looks like he feels full, sick or tired. He’ll beat Chesnut, but I will be routing for Chestnut.
Gah…me too,and I have him in the death pool this year.Anyhow ,I’m glad he is still alive…I guess.
Has anyone noticed that none of the top eaters are morbidly obese- although many obese enter. Perhaps something to the notion that the stomach can’t expand that much if there is a lot of excess fat blocking the expansion?
That’s not just a notion, that’s precisely why. The fat guy can probably match the skinny guy weiner for weiner eventually, but the skinny guys can do it faster.
I dunno. TK has had a hard time substantially improving on his record the last few years. JC just blew it out of the water by a long shot. I think TK will have his hands (and stomach) full with this one. I’ll bet this will be the most publicized competition yet.
BTW, TK is not just not fat, he is built like a brick shithouse. Did you ever see that “True Life” I’m a competitive eater on MTv? It’s worth a viewing. Entertaining and TK puts away a MASSIVE amount of noodles and whatnot at some restaurant in Japan on it.
Dumb question/mild hijack from an (appalled) non-follower of the “sport”: is there any rule or tradition which prevents the contestants from vomiting after the event is over to relieve their pain? (I’m not a competitive eater but I am a binge eater, and the idea of a non-compulsive person doing that much binging on purpose boggles my mind.)
I believe official rules state there can’t be any reversal (competitive eating lingo for vomiting) for a specified time period after the contest. I’m not sure what the exact time period is, though.
Thanks, QtM.
You can’t barf till the contest is made official, shortly after the time runs out. IIRC a few years back there was some “controversy” becasue TK sent back about about an ounce of food from stomach to his mouth, but since it didn’t leave his mouth (he “caught” it), it was not ruled as a violation, like it mattered anyway- the upchuck was probably one tenth of one hotdog, and he had won the contest by like 20.
This is a big development. The competitive eating community has definitely been promoting “Jaws” Chestnut for the last couple years, and they thought he might give Kobayashi a run for it hotdog-wise last July 4th.
Now that he’s smashed that recrod. . .wow. That’s going to be some contest.
Check out “The Horsemen of the Esophagus” or “Eat This Book” for an inside look at the world of competitive eating.
Or check out some wiki pages of these guys.
At the very least, they’ll do things like chew massive wads of gum to exercise their jaw muscles, but they train their bellies, too.
Stephen Colbert, in covering this flag-waving story, had a great line about hot dogs: They were invented when a family of raccoons wandered into a toothpaste factory. 