Coney Island Hosts 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest
Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest (Getty Images)
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NEW YORK -- Every Fourth of July, Coney Island stages an event featuring two of America's biggest loves: hot dogs and competition.
The two pastimes merge Sunday afternoon by the Brooklyn boardwalk for the annual Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest.
This year's competition is going on without six-time champion Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi. The world's No. 3 professional eater has refused to sign a contract with Major League Eating - the fast food equivalent of the NFL - to be free to compete in contests sanctioned by other groups, said George Shea, host of the Coney Island event televised live on ESPN.
"It's like Tom Brady saying he wants to be in the Super Bowl, but then wanting to go compete in Arena football," Shea told The Associated Press. After months of negotiations, he said, "we're at an impasse."
The favorite is the No. 1 ranked eater and three-time defending champion, 26-year-old Joey "Jaws" Chestnut of San Jose, Calif. The 230-pound-man is going for the bejeweled, mustard-yellow belt plus a $20,000 purse - aiming for 70 dogs and buns in 10 minutes.
Among his beef-gobbling rivals is No. 2 ranked Bob Shoudt.
The top female contender, Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, is a 98-pound Korean-born American whom Shea calls the "leader of the Four Horsemen of the Esophagus."
Americans enjoy 150 million hot dogs each July 4 - "enough to stretch from D.C. to L.A. more than five times," said Janet "Queen of Wien" Riley, president of the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council.
During the competition, however, contestants take just one or two big bites at most.
Absent from Friday's weigh-in at City Hall was Kobayashi, a 160-pound Japanese with a special technique: breaking each hot dog in half and ingesting it in one gulp, then literally wiggling the contents into the stomach.
Last year, Chestnut ate 68 dogs in 10 minutes, breaking his own world record and winning three consecutive Nathan's titles. Kobayashi downed 64. That's about as many as the average American eats in a year - 60, according to the council.
Kobayashi, 32, told Japan's Kyodo News on Friday he wanted to compete in the event, but he wrote on his blog that signing a contract "would have severely limited the ability to eat and eating behavior itself."
Chestnut said he wouldn't be surprised if "Koby" just showed up "in hopes of catching his competitors off guard."
In recent years, a crowd favorite is New York window washer and nude model Crazy Legs Conti, the star of a 2004 documentary whose dreadlocks bounce as he dances and speed-eats.
Sunday's shenanigans include a two-hour preview show featuring three circus acts by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, rapper Badlands Booker and Shea crooning the 1980s pop song "99 Luftballons" (99 Red Balloons) - in German. He's doing it to fulfill the wish of an elderly woman who had e-mailed him, nostalgic for her visit to Coney Island in the '80s with her late husband.
Then, at noon, comes the highlight of the Fourth of July on Coney Island - said to be the birthplace of fast food.
The first hot dog was sold here around 1870 by German butcher Charles Feltman. His competitive, Polish-born employee, Nathan Handwerker, opened his own business in 1916 - Nathan's Famous, still the backdrop to the contest started here that year.
According to local lore, immigrants arguing about who was most patriotic settled their dispute by testing who could eat more franks. Irishman Jim Mullen won with 13.
After watching the stomach-churning feast, some of the tens of thousands of spectators might well need some Pepto-Bismol - a new 2010 sponsor - before they join the demolition-derby crowd of bodies bumping their way through Surf Avenue in sweltering heat (temperatures are forecast to be in the 90s).
The way Shea sees it, a hot dog-eating contest and America's biggest city were made for each other: "New York is a jewel built on the dream of greatness, and that same dream is driving every competitive eater."
And it ain't over till it's over - till the hot-dog "Tsunami" hits Coney Island. Or doesn't.
********************************************************************************
NEW YORK -- Competitive eater Joey Chestnut has held on to his title at the annual Fourth of July hot-dog-eating contest at New York's Coney Island, but one of his biggest rivals tried to crash the celebration and has been taken into custody.
The two pastimes merge Sunday afternoon by the Brooklyn boardwalk for the annual Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest.
This year's competition is going on without six-time champion Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi. The world's No. 3 professional eater has refused to sign a contract with Major League Eating - the fast food equivalent of the NFL - to be free to compete in contests sanctioned by other groups, said George Shea, host of the Coney Island event televised live on ESPN.
"It's like Tom Brady saying he wants to be in the Super Bowl, but then wanting to go compete in Arena football," Shea told The Associated Press. After months of negotiations, he said, "we're at an impasse."
The favorite is the No. 1 ranked eater and three-time defending champion, 26-year-old Joey "Jaws" Chestnut of San Jose, Calif. The 230-pound-man is going for the bejeweled, mustard-yellow belt plus a $20,000 purse - aiming for 70 dogs and buns in 10 minutes.
Among his beef-gobbling rivals is No. 2 ranked Bob Shoudt.
The top female contender, Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, is a 98-pound Korean-born American whom Shea calls the "leader of the Four Horsemen of the Esophagus."
Americans enjoy 150 million hot dogs each July 4 - "enough to stretch from D.C. to L.A. more than five times," said Janet "Queen of Wien" Riley, president of the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council.
During the competition, however, contestants take just one or two big bites at most.
Absent from Friday's weigh-in at City Hall was Kobayashi, a 160-pound Japanese with a special technique: breaking each hot dog in half and ingesting it in one gulp, then literally wiggling the contents into the stomach.
Last year, Chestnut ate 68 dogs in 10 minutes, breaking his own world record and winning three consecutive Nathan's titles. Kobayashi downed 64. That's about as many as the average American eats in a year - 60, according to the council.
Kobayashi, 32, told Japan's Kyodo News on Friday he wanted to compete in the event, but he wrote on his blog that signing a contract "would have severely limited the ability to eat and eating behavior itself."
Chestnut said he wouldn't be surprised if "Koby" just showed up "in hopes of catching his competitors off guard."
In recent years, a crowd favorite is New York window washer and nude model Crazy Legs Conti, the star of a 2004 documentary whose dreadlocks bounce as he dances and speed-eats.
Sunday's shenanigans include a two-hour preview show featuring three circus acts by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, rapper Badlands Booker and Shea crooning the 1980s pop song "99 Luftballons" (99 Red Balloons) - in German. He's doing it to fulfill the wish of an elderly woman who had e-mailed him, nostalgic for her visit to Coney Island in the '80s with her late husband.
Then, at noon, comes the highlight of the Fourth of July on Coney Island - said to be the birthplace of fast food.
The first hot dog was sold here around 1870 by German butcher Charles Feltman. His competitive, Polish-born employee, Nathan Handwerker, opened his own business in 1916 - Nathan's Famous, still the backdrop to the contest started here that year.
According to local lore, immigrants arguing about who was most patriotic settled their dispute by testing who could eat more franks. Irishman Jim Mullen won with 13.
After watching the stomach-churning feast, some of the tens of thousands of spectators might well need some Pepto-Bismol - a new 2010 sponsor - before they join the demolition-derby crowd of bodies bumping their way through Surf Avenue in sweltering heat (temperatures are forecast to be in the 90s).
The way Shea sees it, a hot dog-eating contest and America's biggest city were made for each other: "New York is a jewel built on the dream of greatness, and that same dream is driving every competitive eater."
And it ain't over till it's over - till the hot-dog "Tsunami" hits Coney Island. Or doesn't.
********************************************************************************
Ex-champ arrested at Coney Island hot-dog-eating contest after his rival wins
July 4, 2010 | 12:37 pm
NEW YORK -- Competitive eater Joey Chestnut has held on to his title at the annual Fourth of July hot-dog-eating contest at New York's Coney Island, but one of his biggest rivals tried to crash the celebration and has been taken into custody.Chestnut chomped down on 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes on Sunday to win the annual Nathan's International Hot Dog Eating Contest for the fourth year in a row.
Watching from the crowd was six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi of Japan, who has not signed a contract with Major League Eating to be free to compete in contests sanctioned by other groups.
But Kobayashi went on stage after the competition. Police officers grabbed him, and he tried to hold onto police barricades as they took him into custody.
-- Associated Press
****************************************************************************
Kobayashi, wearing a black T-shirt bearing the message “Free Kobi” in green letters, was freed by a Brooklyn judge after he pleaded not guilty. The slim, boyish 32-year-old said he consumed only a sandwich and some milk in jail.
A contract dispute had kept Kobayashi out of the annual Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, but he still showed up at Sunday's event.
“I was there as a spectator, just to cheer on my buddies,” he said through an interpreter outside court Monday. Fans chanted for him, and “in the heat of it, I jumped on the stage, hoping they would let me eat.”
His attorney, Mario D. Romano, said his client was waved up onstage after spectators began chanting “Let him eat!”
“Shortly after he got on the stage, he was grabbed from behind by officers,” Romano said.
Kobayashi was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest, trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Kobayashi, who is living in New York, had refused to sign a contract with Major League Eating, the fast food equivalent of the NFL. On his Japanese-language blog, he said he wanted to be free to enter contests sanctioned by other groups.
But a few days ago, he told Japan's Kyodo News: “I really want to compete in the [Coney Island] event.”
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, of San Jose, Calif., won by downing 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
After witnessing the drama involving Kobayashi, Chestnut said, “I feel bad for him.”
Chestnut received the mustard-yellow champion's belt and a $20,000 purse, but was disappointed with his own performance. The 26-year-old winner was aiming for a record 70 dogs in 10 minutes. Last year, he ate 68 dogs, four more than Kobayashi.
Major League Eating issued a statement calling Kobayashi's actions “inappropriate and unfortunate.”
“Kobayashi was a great champion and we hope that he is able to resolve his current situation and move past this,” the organization said.
-- Associated Press
****************************************************************************
Eating champ arrested in Coney Island hot dog fiasco is freed from jail
July 5, 2010 | 11:49 am
NEW YORK -- Japanese eating champion Takeru Kobayashi, arrested at a Fourth of July hot-dog-eating contest, was released Monday after a night in jail, looking a little weary and saying he was hungry.Kobayashi, wearing a black T-shirt bearing the message “Free Kobi” in green letters, was freed by a Brooklyn judge after he pleaded not guilty. The slim, boyish 32-year-old said he consumed only a sandwich and some milk in jail.
A contract dispute had kept Kobayashi out of the annual Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, but he still showed up at Sunday's event.
“I was there as a spectator, just to cheer on my buddies,” he said through an interpreter outside court Monday. Fans chanted for him, and “in the heat of it, I jumped on the stage, hoping they would let me eat.”
His attorney, Mario D. Romano, said his client was waved up onstage after spectators began chanting “Let him eat!”
“Shortly after he got on the stage, he was grabbed from behind by officers,” Romano said.
Kobayashi was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest, trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Kobayashi, who is living in New York, had refused to sign a contract with Major League Eating, the fast food equivalent of the NFL. On his Japanese-language blog, he said he wanted to be free to enter contests sanctioned by other groups.
But a few days ago, he told Japan's Kyodo News: “I really want to compete in the [Coney Island] event.”
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, of San Jose, Calif., won by downing 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
After witnessing the drama involving Kobayashi, Chestnut said, “I feel bad for him.”
Chestnut received the mustard-yellow champion's belt and a $20,000 purse, but was disappointed with his own performance. The 26-year-old winner was aiming for a record 70 dogs in 10 minutes. Last year, he ate 68 dogs, four more than Kobayashi.
Major League Eating issued a statement calling Kobayashi's actions “inappropriate and unfortunate.”
“Kobayashi was a great champion and we hope that he is able to resolve his current situation and move past this,” the organization said.
-- Associated Press
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