Competitive eating

The most delicious sport around

Romer Bautista, Staff

July 4 will always be known as the United States’ Independence Day — a day on which the Yanks can wave the stars and strips and be proud to call themselves American.

But on the fourth of July in 2007, a young, 23-year-old Californian gave the United States a whole new reason to celebrate the day. His name is Joey Chestnut, and on that wonderful day, Chestnut ate himself into the history books. In a span of just 12 minutes, Chestnut devoured an unthinkable 66 Nathan’s Famous hot dogs (with buns!), setting a new world record in the process.

His closest competitor was the former world record holder, Takeru Kobayashi. Kobayashi inhaled an admirable 63 dogs, but a costly upheaval cost him his record.

Chestnut conquering Kobayashi was the shining moment in the “sport” known as competitive eating, but is downing 66 dogs in 12 minutes really the most impressive record in the world of competitive eating?

There are 122 records listed on the International Federation of Competitive Eating’s (IFOCE) website (http://ifoce.com), and a number of them definitely deserve some consideration for the title of most impressive eating record.

Chestnut’s hot dog record is all the more amazing when you take into account the number of other eating records that he currently holds and the wide range of food that those records cover. Chestnut is not only hungry for hot dogs, he can also lay claim to being the king of the chicken wings (182 in half an hour; 7.5 pounds in 12 minutes), the master of the grilled cheese sandwich (47 in 10 minutes) and the No. 1 asparagus eater (8.6 pounds of tempura deep-fried asparagus spears in 10 minutes). It’s quite an impressive resume.

Kobayashi is also a holder of a number of impressive records. Even though he lost his hot dog record, Kobayashi still holds the world record in brat consumption with his record-setting performance on Aug. 5, 2006 when he ate 58 brats in just 10 minutes. Kobayashi’s eclectic palate is also noteworthy. He is the record holder when it comes to the eating of cow brains, doing a jaw-dropping 17.7 pounds in 15 minutes.

The records in oyster consumption (46 dozen in 10 minutes), egg consumption (65 hard boiled eggs in six minutes), and taco consumption (48 soft chicken tacos in 11 minutes) are extra impressive when considering that the holder of these records is Sonya Thomas, the first lady of competitive eating. Even more impressive is that “The Black Widow,” as she is known in competitive eating circles, holds 17.2 per cent of the records listed on the website (21 in total). What’s even more impressive than that is that Thomas weights in at a paltry 105 pounds.

But, in my opinion, the most impressive eating record belongs to Richard LeFevre, a 63-year-old from Henderson, Nev.. On April 3, 2004, LeFevre ate an unthinkable six pounds of Spam from a can. That works out to nearly 14 full cans of the standard seven-ounce can of Spam.

Eating more than a dozen cans of Spam in one sitting! Now that is an impressive record!