Hot Dog Champ

I saw the annual Nathan Hot Dog eating contest on TV again this year( on July 4th). It's worth commenting on, I think. It's silly to claim that eating contests are sporting events, but that's what ESPN must be doing. They show it every year and each time it gets big ratings. It seem that the Pele ,Maradona and Beckham of hot dog eating is a skinny Japanese competitor named Takeru Kobayashi. Kobi is much feared by even those competitors twice his tiny stature because he wins those contests routinely, and by large margins.
Well he won for the 6th straight time in this competition as World Champion Hot Dog Eater, but it was a close victory for Kobi and a new young competitor named Wally Chestnut is "barking" at Kobi's hot dog heels now. In last year's contest Kobi ate 50 hot dogs in just 12 minutes, breaking apart the bun and dog and swallowing each half in a consecutive fashion. This year Kobi had 53 and Chestnut 51. Uh....it's not as disgusting to watch as you might think, more fascinating to think the human stomach can ingest so much food so quickly.
Well, judging by the competitors who vomit their dogs while trying to do it I assume it isn't comfortable. All of the eating competitions are based on among eaten in a short period of time. Taking more than a few few gulps of water makes it impossible to keep up with the other eaters. Look at Kobi's eating record and it either sickens your stomach or makes you wonder how he does it. here are some of Kobi's competitive records.
- At a speed eating contest in Hong Kong last August Kobi consumed 83 vegetarian dumplings in just 8 minutes. On the next day of the competition he ate 100 steamed pork buns in 12 minutes. - Kobi also has the world record for eating those smaller hamburgers. He ate 69 of them in just 8 minutes at the World Hamburger Eating Contest two years ago.
- He holds the world record for eating rice balls, consuming 9 kilograms of them in just 30 minutes.
- Kobi set the most disgusting fast eating record of all recently when he ate 8 kilograms of cow brains in just 15 minutes.
This Kobi fellow is fascinating. So I did some research to find out how he is able to eat so much. As expected I found he has a training routine and uses techniques to be able to gorge himself in the competitions. Kobi uses a series of stomach stretching exercises that include stomach expanding seltzer or soda water binges. It seems the volume of water and gas in the seltzer expands the stomach without needing to consume any food energy. Thus, Kobe's body weight stay sat a skinny 59 Kilograms. He always avoids chewing when eating the foods, simple swallowing them whole and is known for the "Kobi Wiggle" which he uses to force the food down his esophagus.
Haha Kobi says his hot dog eating routine is the "Solomon Method" (I have no idea who Solomon is or was) in which he eats the hot dogs by splitting them in half, swallowing both parts at once, and then eating the bun. Kobi says he eats little until a month before the competition when he starts expanding his stomach as a prelude. They call Kobi "The Tsunami" and some say (it' s quite an exaggeration, I think) that he is the world's greatest athlete.
In Japan he is treated as celebrity with more than a few sexy groupies pursuing his "hot dog" (Hehe Forgive me, I couldn't resist writing that remark). He doesn't just win the contests, he destroys the competitors spirit by often doubling what they eat. Kobi says " I never met (baseball star) Ichiro before, but he is one of my role models and I'm aiming to be like him." Kobi is still in his twenties, so if his stomach holds up he may become the newest trendy celebrity the media embraces.
But I wonder how these competitors feel after the event? What happens to their bodies and if course, what goes in the body must come out. Does it hurt more to stuff that 40th hot dog down the throat that the expel those 40 on the toilet afterward. I guess some of the competitors regard hemorrhoids as badges of honor and testimony to their gorging.
Oh....this whole subject is getting messy. I better stop now and go have a hot dog.