Kobayashi loses!

In a victory for the good old U. S. of A. on the fourth of July, Californian Joey Chestnut knocked off the Lance Armstrong of hot dog eating, Takeru Kobayashi. Still, I can’t help but being a little sad at seeing the long-time champion defeated. CBS Sportsline has an article entitled Chestnut edges Kobayashi; both men smash world record. Kobayashi has won the annual Nathan’s 4th of July hot dog eating competition in Coney Island from 2001 to 2006. My recollection is that the competition has not even been particularly close in the past. Despite recent chiropractic treatment on his jaw and a wisdom tooth extraction, Kobayashi broke the previous record of 60 hot dogs in 12 minutes by eating 63 dogs. Unfortunately for him, the Great American Hope, Joey Chestnut downed 66 of them.

According to Wikipedia, Kobayashi debuted as a rookie on July 4, 2001 and ate 50 hot dogs. The previous record had been 25 1/2. He obliterated the old record so badly that the organizers ran out of number signs for how many dogs had been eaten. They had to use hand-written signs as the competition progressed.

This little nugget from Wikipedia is great on so many levels:

However, on Fox’s 2003 show Man vs. Beast, Kobayashi lost in an eating competition against a 1089-pound Kodiak bear, when he ate 31 bunless hot dogs in 2 minutes and 36 seconds to the bear’s 50.

What is even more remarkable is Kobayashi’s size. Early on, he was eating these volumes of food as a 5’7″ man weighing in at about 110 pounds. In recent years, he’s bulked up to about 165 pounds. However, looking at Joey Chestnut’s records, he is certainly a force to be reckoned with. We may well have a new king on our hands. Perhaps they will be the Larry Byrd – Magic Johnson of competitive eating for the next few years. The world can only wait and see.