Competitive Eating Speech

Competitive Eating
(Advanced Speech)
On July 4, 2001, 20 competitors lined up at a table at Coney Island, New York, for the premier contest of their sport. They came from all over the world: US, Japan, Russia, England Germany Canada. They had names like Hungry Charles Hardy, Ed Cookie Jarvis, and David Moe Ribs Molesky. Many weighed in at 300, 400 pounds, and stood well over 6 feet. Then there was the relatively unknown Takeru Kobayashi. He weighed in at only 113? pounds. All were here today for Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, an event held annually since 1916. On this day, a spectacular feat would be accomplished, a feat so stunning, it is perhaps unparalleled in the whole history of sports.

Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to the world of competitive eating. The rules are simple. You have twelve minutes to eat as many hot dogs and buns as you can. No vomiting allowed. But other rules of etiquitte are optional. In fact, what started with hot dogs has now grown to encompass a whole professional circuit of contests involving various different foods. The governing body of the sport is called the International Federation of Competitive Eating, or the IFOCE. The IFOCE sanctions contests for eating chicken wings, matzo balls, jalapeno peppers, pickled quail eggs, oysters, vidalia onions, crawfish, ice cream, hamburgers, and so on. Many of the events on the professional circuit started when various restaurants or food producers wished to promote their food. For example, the icecream eating contest is held with Max and Mina’s vanilla ice cream. The matzah ball contest is sponsored by a Ben’s Kosher Deli in New York City. The IFOCE also assigns world rankings to eaters, much like tennis players or golf players.

The professional eaters take their sport very seriously. Although the money is not great, the best can make $150,000 per year. And there can be tremendous prestige as the fan base is increasing and professionals are getting more and more media attention. Here are some of the training techniques used by the professionals: They frequent all-you-can-eat buffets and gladly accept restaurant challenges to eat 72 oz steaks in return for eating free. Of course they never end up paying. They work out, including doing extensive gum chewing to strengthen the jaw muscles. They practice swallowing whole ice cubes to stretch the esophogus. In the 10 days leading up to the day of the contest, the pros might begin a daily routine of: chugging a gallon of water in 2.5 minutes, and eating 9 pounds of boiled cabbage. This routine is designed to stretch out the stomach. Some professionals like to forego all solids for three or four days leading up to the contest, but no one recommends fasting since that will tend to tighten the stomach On the day of the contest, many contestants will practice meditation, since it requires incredible mental discipline to continue eating when you are feeling really full.

The IFOCE keeps track of various eating world records. Some of the world records include:
-7 quarter pound sticks of salted butter iin 5 minutes (Dan Lerman)
-137 chicken wings in 30 minutes Bill “Ell Wingador” Simmons
-57 (17.7 pounds) of cow brains in 15 minuutes Takeru Kobayashi (but don’t mention him yet)
-38 Hard boiled eggs in 10 minutes by Ericc Booker.
(My favorite) – 4 32-ounce bowls of mayonnaise in 8 minutes Oleg Zhornitskiy

Most of these records I’ve described are fairly recent, as most of the food categories are recent. However, the hot dog contest has a long history. Here is a bit of the progression of hot dog eating world record:
1980? 18 ½ (hot dogs and buns consumed in 12 minutes)
1991 21 ½ Frank “Large” Dellarosa
1996 – 22 ¼ Edward “the animal” Krachie
Late 90’s – a number of Japanese began to take dominant positions in the sport
24 ½ - Hirofumi Nakajima (Year?)
2000: 25 - Kazutoyo “the rabbit” Arai

And that brings us back to July 4 2001. After more than 80 years of the contest, the world record stood at 25 hot dogs in 12 minutes. On that day, the unknown Takeru Kobayashi, weighing in at 113? pounds, revealed to the world the Solomon method of eating hot dogs. With the Solomon method, he would divide the hot dog in half, and shove both halves into his mouth at once. While consuming the meat, he would dip the bun in water just enough to lubricate it, and then eat that too. For those twelve minutes, he ate an average of more than 4 hot dogs per minute. By the end of the 12 minutes, all his competitors had stopped to watch him eat. Takeru Kobayshi finished the contest having consumed 50 hot dogs. He had gained 16 pounds.

Ladies and gentlemen. It is difficult to impress upon you the magnitude of this achievement. After 80 years of this contest, the world record stood at 25 hot dogs. And here, in one year, someone came out and doubled the record.

What if Mark Mcgwire had hit not 70 home runs in 1998, but 120 home runs? What if Tiger Woods had played 18 holes of golf not in 60 strokes, but in 30 strokes? Takeru came around and doubled the world record, and I don’t believe that has any parallel in the history of sports.

The field of competitive eating continues to gain popularity. Efforts are under way to make it an Olympic sport. And the records keep growing. In fact, in 2002, Takeru Kobayashi beat his own record by eating 50 ½ hot dogs. If you should happen to be visiting Coney Island next July 4, and you have the stomach for it, I encourage you to go see the hot dog contest. Ladies and Gentlemen,

Bon appetite!

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