If you won't be downing hot dogs or the fruits of a barbecue yourself in Monday's heat, what's better than watching a bunch of professional eaters do it, in massive quantities? It's pretty much the most American thing there is! Yesterday Nathan's held an official "weigh-in" for the annual hot dog eating contest in City Hall Park, where we got a glimpse of how it could all go down.
This year is the first to have separate competitions for men and women. Joey Chestnut and Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, as the reigning monarchs of their respective genders, were the only competitors to actually be weighed—coming in at 220 and just 105 pounds, respectively. One eater, Sean Gordon, is excited about this change because Sonya was previously ranked ahead of him and now he can sit closer to Joey, which is "where the camera is." Also new to the fray is an "eating squad" from China, making the contest even more international.
All this gobbling even seems to have done some bodies good! Pat Philbin, one of the last of what he calls "big guys—natural eaters," says he weighed 345 pounds when he started eating competitively (with eggnog on Opie and Anthony, no less) and weighs 300 pounds now, in spite of his type 2 diabetes. His training involves large quantities of water to stretch out his stomach capacity ("like stretching out a t-shirt," he said).
Six-time world champion Takeru Kobayashi—exiled, blacklisted, jailed, cut down in his prime, etc., all because he wanted to stick up for his fellow eaters, or so he says—was nowhere to be seen, but he will be stuffing his face in parallel synchrony to the contest at 230 Fifth.
The Women's Championship will be held at 11:30 a.m., and the Men's will be held at 12 p.m. The event will be aired live on ESPN beginning at 12, and ESPN3 (which cares more about the fairer sex, apparently) will begin coverage at 11:30 a.m. Here's our handy guide to handicapping the competition.
