Eating is sport?

A Japanese professional food fighter Takeru Kobayashi won again at the Nathans Hot dog eating contest in Coney Island. Here is the movie on Youtube, part 1, part2, part3. Wow! He was a very thin cute boy before, but now he is very muscular.

On his blog, I could read his professional consciousness and hard training. To be honest, in Japan food fighter's status is not so high. I suppose poeple think they are big eaters and eating contests are a just entertainment. But in the U.S, competiting eating is a sports. So Kobayashi was added to the Topps cards as a non-baseball Sporting Icon with Hulk Hogan, Carl Lewis, Mike Tyson etc. Wow it's great!

So this means the Champion "Gal Sone" who won a big eating contest on the TV program "TV Champion" is a sport player in the U.S. Please check her sporting here.

related link
Nathans's trouble

Comments

[Eddy]

It is becoming more difficult to say what is a sport and what isn't yes?. I used to think that "competitive eating" could not be a sport because of the health risks, but then again marathon runners seem to put their bodies to maximum effort too... Anyway, it is more surprising for me to see that some of the top ranked guys and gals in this activity are way too skinny! Search for IFOCE if you want to see the rank...

[Martin]

I agree with eddie ho, this is just so sick.

[liling]

I am surprised that his stomach can contain so much!!! I wonder how much he eats everyday.

[eddie ho]

Maybe, don't him him a FOOD FIGHTER, unless you mean a FOO FIGHTER, because he is NOT a food fighter, he is a competitive eater, and I think this is a very sick sad practice, people are dying, starving around the world, and now there are these SHOWS to show people eating too much food. This is disgusting. STOP THIS NONSENSE. THE WORLD IS SICK!

[Michael]

I think that's changing. The idea of competitive eating is becoming more popular and mainstream, and while certainly not having the respectability of even something like pool, it is gaining. No one would have considered poker a sport a few years ago, yet now you have huge poker tournaments being shown on ESPN. The concept of "sport" seems to be going back to its broader roots to include just about any kind of organized competition or game.

Besides, Nathan's hot dog eating contest is a lot less freakish than, say, the World's Strongest Man Competition. ^_^

[Dan]

Nah, A food eating champ's status isn't very high in the US either. It is more like a freak show. Freak meaning weirdo in this case.

[Dan]

Nah, I food eating champs staus isn't very high in the US either. It is more like a freak show. Freak meaning weirdo in this case.