Add eating competitions to my list of favorite sports

If you haven't already been pained enough by the daily coverage on ESPN of the hot-dog eating championship, let me point you to the results of the final showdown that occurred yesterday. Some others have expressed disgust at treating hot-dog eating as a sport. But, count me out of that club of whiners. I had already fallen in love with eating as a contest when we had 2-minute shootouts with grad students stuffing down hot dogs, pies, and chocolates at the TGIF in school sometime last year. Now, after tracking the stories about hot-dog eating over the last few days, I must admit that the sport is filled with more intrigue than this year's Wimbledon.

First, in the lead up to the championship, the main challenger to the world champion (of course, there's a world champion in hot-dog eating as well!) broke the world record. Then, the world champion announced that his jaw had been injured, and so he might have to withdraw from the competition. This was inevitably followed by allegations that the champion was chickening out after seeing his record broken. Finally, Kobayashi (referring to him as world champion is getting repetitive) got his wisdom tooth removed a few days before the event to reduce the pain in his jaw. And, as is obvious to anyone who has had his wisdom tooth removed, this resulted in swollen gums.

Anyway, in spite of all this, the contest between Kobayashi and his main challenger, Joey Chestnut (the one who had broken Kobayashi's record), did happen yesterday. And, lo and behold, as is fitting for any great sport, the challenger triumphed! That too, with both breaking the world record!! Given the relative calm in the rest of the sporting world at the moment, I must say I'm keenly looking forward to Kobayashi making good his promise of reclaiming his title next year.