Last summer, after watching Joey Chestnut eat a world-record 66
hot dogs in 12 minutes on ESPN, I developed an obsession with
competitive eating, which combines two of my greatest loves: eating
food and watching sports. But it also raised questions: What
possesses someone to become a competitive eater, to stuff his or her
face with obscene amounts of food, risking vomiting (or experiencing,
as it’s called in the circuit, “a reversal”) in public? And does
this really qualify as a sport?
Two weeks later, my fascination brought me to the Chinook Winds
Resort in Lincoln City, Oregon, to watch Chestnut eat 7.65 pounds
of barbecue pork ribs in 12 minutes. I got a chance to interview
Chestnut, a sweet, soft-spoken civil-engineering major at San Jose
State who works construction, and promptly fell a little bit in love
with him. I have never met someone so genuinely in love with food and
so aware of the workings of his own body. Chestnut’s career as the
number-one-ranked competitive eater (as determined by the International
Federation of Competitive Eating) is marked by determination and being
in tune with his body, but, most of all, by a deep affection for food.
“I can tell you love food, Angela,” Chestnut said as I swooned. “Say
you love chicken Parmesan—you want to eat a whole plate of it.
The difference between you and me is that I want to eat 10 pounds of
it.”
The 93rd Annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest airs Fri July 4
at 9 am on ESPN.
