http://www.mikesnewsquips.freeservers.com/ph7,5,2hotdogcontest.jpgJune 17, 2004 | Tokyo -- He's taken on sumo wrestlers. No contest. Former NFL star William "The Refrigerator" Perry, three times his size, took up the gauntlet. Not even close. Nobody, but nobody, can eat hot dogs like Japan's Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi. And, once again, he's in training to devour the field at one of competitive eating's most venerable battles -- the annual Fourth of July hot dog wolfing contest on Coney Island.
"It's like any other sport. You really have to be dedicated to win," Kobayashi, who has won the New York City contest an unprecedented three straight years, said this week from his home in Nagoya, a city in central Japan.
Not to be confused with your average armchair gluttony, competitive eating is starting to look like a potential Olympic event. It has its own governing body -- the New York-based International Federation of Competitive Eating -- and branches in the United States, Japan, England, Thailand, Ukraine, Germany, Canada and Ireland.
Hot dogs aren't the only food on the plate, either.
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2004/06/17/eating/index.html
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