Trendsurfing: Competitive eating (The Times)
By David Rowan
Hungry? How about a quick snack of 552 oysters, 65 hard-boiled eggs and 5 litres of vanilla ice-cream? For all the warnings of an obesity crisis, the American "sport" of competitive eating is establishing itself as a stomach-churning trend on this side of the Atlantic, too. We might struggle at Wimbledon, but Britain, you will be relieved to learn, is finally making its weight felt on the international bulk-eating circuit.
It all used to be so innocent, with little more than the annual World Stinging Nettle Eating Championships - held in a Dorset pub - to tempt international players. But this year, eating contests have popped up across Britain as a form of popular entertainment. At Southport's Pleasureland amusement park, teams have fought it out over hot dogs, pizza and candyfloss; in Birmingham, they have raced to guzzle pork pies. Last month, a winner was declared in what was said to be the UK's first National Competitive Eating Championship. With two books and a Channel 4 documentary in the works, it's clearly time to trade in your gym membership for a few training sessions at the local chippie.
Our new national champion, Rob Burns from Birmingham, managed 18 pork pies in 12 minutes at the Newark Showgrounds, earning himself a place next week in the World Cup of competitive eating, Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, New York. According to George Shea, who does PR for Nathan's and chairs the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE), this is Britain's opportunity to redress our "woeful" performance against the world's greatest binge-eaters. "This is an opportunity," Shea asserts, "for the UK to showcase its top athletic talent and get back on the sporting map." Not to mention an opportunity to put Burns off hot dogs for life.
Shea and his brother Richard formed the IFOCE eight years ago after seeing how much press coverage the Nathan's contest brought their client. Since then, they claim, competitive eating has become the fastest-growing sport in the world, the federation's own list of approved contests having grown from 12 "eating events" in 1997 to almost 200 today. Participants can specialise in cheesecake contests, tamales, even kosher matzo balls - or, like Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, ranked as the world's number two, they can take whatever's going. Thomas, a 37-year-old Korean-American who weighs just 7st, currently holds world records for speed-eating 161 buffalo wings, 80 chicken nuggets and 65 hard-boiled eggs - but not, thankfully, all at once.
The secret, Thomas explains, is "hand speed and hand-eye co-ordination, as well as chewing and swallowing fast". A Burger King manager by day, she is now training to overtake the world's number one, Japanese legend Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, who last year demolished almost 54 Nathan's hot dogs to win. Let's hope for Rob Burns' sake that Britain fails to come anywhere close.
Yet away from the dining table, divisions are breaking out. As sponsorship money flows in, rivals to the IFOCE are fast emerging. Worries are also being voiced about the health risks competitors are taking to keep their sponsors happy. We may have followed the US obesity trend, but do we really need to reduce eating to a meretricious if lucrative "sport"?
(The Times Magazine, June 25 2005)
. . . AND READ MORE TRENDSURFING COLUMNS HERE . . .
Hungry? How about a quick snack of 552 oysters, 65 hard-boiled eggs and 5 litres of vanilla ice-cream? For all the warnings of an obesity crisis, the American "sport" of competitive eating is establishing itself as a stomach-churning trend on this side of the Atlantic, too. We might struggle at Wimbledon, but Britain, you will be relieved to learn, is finally making its weight felt on the international bulk-eating circuit.
It all used to be so innocent, with little more than the annual World Stinging Nettle Eating Championships - held in a Dorset pub - to tempt international players. But this year, eating contests have popped up across Britain as a form of popular entertainment. At Southport's Pleasureland amusement park, teams have fought it out over hot dogs, pizza and candyfloss; in Birmingham, they have raced to guzzle pork pies. Last month, a winner was declared in what was said to be the UK's first National Competitive Eating Championship. With two books and a Channel 4 documentary in the works, it's clearly time to trade in your gym membership for a few training sessions at the local chippie.
Our new national champion, Rob Burns from Birmingham, managed 18 pork pies in 12 minutes at the Newark Showgrounds, earning himself a place next week in the World Cup of competitive eating, Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, New York. According to George Shea, who does PR for Nathan's and chairs the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE), this is Britain's opportunity to redress our "woeful" performance against the world's greatest binge-eaters. "This is an opportunity," Shea asserts, "for the UK to showcase its top athletic talent and get back on the sporting map." Not to mention an opportunity to put Burns off hot dogs for life.
Shea and his brother Richard formed the IFOCE eight years ago after seeing how much press coverage the Nathan's contest brought their client. Since then, they claim, competitive eating has become the fastest-growing sport in the world, the federation's own list of approved contests having grown from 12 "eating events" in 1997 to almost 200 today. Participants can specialise in cheesecake contests, tamales, even kosher matzo balls - or, like Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, ranked as the world's number two, they can take whatever's going. Thomas, a 37-year-old Korean-American who weighs just 7st, currently holds world records for speed-eating 161 buffalo wings, 80 chicken nuggets and 65 hard-boiled eggs - but not, thankfully, all at once.
The secret, Thomas explains, is "hand speed and hand-eye co-ordination, as well as chewing and swallowing fast". A Burger King manager by day, she is now training to overtake the world's number one, Japanese legend Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, who last year demolished almost 54 Nathan's hot dogs to win. Let's hope for Rob Burns' sake that Britain fails to come anywhere close.
Yet away from the dining table, divisions are breaking out. As sponsorship money flows in, rivals to the IFOCE are fast emerging. Worries are also being voiced about the health risks competitors are taking to keep their sponsors happy. We may have followed the US obesity trend, but do we really need to reduce eating to a meretricious if lucrative "sport"?
(The Times Magazine, June 25 2005)
. . . AND READ MORE TRENDSURFING COLUMNS HERE . . .
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