Chestnut Beats Kobayashi in Dog-Off, Still Hotdog-Eating Champ

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Anyone who’s anyone in the world-famous sport of professional eating knows what an important day July 4th is. (Pardon the dog-in-cheek style of this article).

It’s the day of the Nathan’s hot-dog eating championship, in which highly-trained eating athletes compete to see who can scarf the most dogs (and buns) in 10 minutes.

This year, the contest was changed from 12 minutes to 10, after someone discovered that the very first dog-eating contest in 1916 lasted only 10 minutes.

It seems like just yesterday that the world was waiting with bated breath to see if scrappy Japanese champ Tokeru Kobayashi would even be able to compete at last year’s event. How time flies.

Tokeru suffered a "training injury" to his jaw shortly before last year’s contest, and the whole world watched as he bravely tried – and failed – to insert just one dog and bun the week before the contest, saying he could barely open his mouth.

But Kobayashi has a true athlete’s fighting spirit, and he doggedly persevered, and only narrowly lost the competition by regurgitating a couple of the dogs – a true professional eating faux pas – and ending up with 63 to newcomer Joey Chestnut’s 66.

But I dogress, that was last year. Everyone in the Major League Eating federation (formerly called the International Federation of Competitive Eating) was anticipating this year’s contest eagerly, to see if Kobayashi would reclaim his title.

It was close, it was very close. Chestnut pulled ahead early, but Kobayashi caught up and it was a dog-and-dog race. When the bell rang at the end of the ten-minute showdown, Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut (who sounds like a character from "The Sopranos") were tied, each with 59 dogs and buns under their, ah, belts.

It was sudden death overtime. The final test was to see who could chow down five hot dogs with buns in five minutes. Again, the tension mounted. Onlookers were holding their breath, presumably in anticipation of who would win, not because they were trying to hold on to their lunches. And the winner was….Joey Chestnut, who claimed his second consecutive title, and kept the honor for the United States when everyone thought it might be lost to Japan forever.

The slightly red-faced, sweaty champion told reporters, "It was a little messier than I wanted it be, but I got them in me and I got them down."

What does Chestnut win for his efforts? Well, obviously worldwide fame and the sheer honor of being the champ, of course. The winner holds the title, and keeps the "Mustard Yellow International Belt," $10,000, plus….a year’s supply of Nathan’s hot dogs.

Summing up why he prevailed over Kobayashi, Chestnut waxed philosophical, saying to reporters, "He wanted it, but I needed it,"