Last Friday, Takeru Kobayashi, a Japanese man who weighs a mere 145 pounds, won the annual Nathan’s International Hot Dog Eating Contest for the third year in a row.
He ate 44-and-a-half hot dogs in 12 minutes.
This hilarious article (from Miles B. via Mike W., with input from Benny C.) voices the suspicions of some of his competitive eating foes: that perhaps Kobayashi is doping. Or that perchance he’s gone under the knife to gain an unfair advantage:
“There have been rumors on the circuit that he was surgically altered by the Japanese government,” added “Crazy Legs” Conti, a wild-card entry in the contest who finished with 15 hot dogs and buns. “I just think he’s the greatest athlete of all-time.”
“Surgically altered by the Japanese government”? Heh.
“Greatest athlete of all time”?
Miles B. supplies this sarcastic list, in which the Japanese dynamo places right up there with the big boys:
Ruth
Jordan
Gretzky
Thorpe
Brown
Ali
Kobayashi