Nathan's 2007 Hot Dog Eating Contest

This year’s Nathan’s Famous Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest was nothing short of the hype surrounding the big event. After downing 59 ½ hot dogs in a previous qualifying contest, Joey Chestnut evolved from a sleeper to a favored contender. During the warm-ups, it appeared that Kobayashi came in focused as usual, knowing he would have to break his personal best to continue his reign as top dog.



As the race got underway, it was amazing to witness the pace of about 12 hot dogs downed on the first minute. To any normal person with a regular digestive tract - can you imagine eating 12 hot dogs in one minute??? Equally amazing by both contestants (and even the “poor” performers who “only” downed 30 or so dawgs), is that self control and tricking their mind not to gag or vomit. Kobayashi did vomit at the end, but can you really blame him after 60 hot dogs? It was an extremely repulsive scene to watch, and certainly worse than watching Chestnut painfully wriggle and try to shove hot dogs down his pipe while he appears to strain in sheer agony with veins about to pierce through his forehead.

Chestnut emerged as the new champion filling up to his esophagus with an astounding 66 hot dogs. Kobayashi puked and swallowed his own vomit to maintain at an honorable standing. Organizers made him wave the American flag, all of a sudden making this a patriotic contest as opposed to the previously freakish event filled with admiration for gluttony. All of a sudden, the contest had a hero and villain, while past contests those same spectators looked upon Kobayashi with amazement and delight.