Takeru Kobayashi

Speed Eater

Takeru Kobayashi is the six-time winner of the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest, held each 4th of July at Coney Island in New York. In 2001, his first year in the competition, Kobayashi ate 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes, shattering the record of 25 hot dogs set the previous year by his countryman Kazutoyo Arai. (Kobayashi, 5'7" and 131 pounds, gained eight pounds in the 12 minutes of the competition.) Kobayashi won again in 2002 (50 and one-half dogs), in 2003 (44 and one-half dogs), in 2004 (a new record of 53 and one-half hot dogs), n 2005 (49 dogs) and in 2006 (another new record, of 53 and three-quarters dogs). His startling chow prowess made Kobayashi an international celebrity; in 2002 he won a made-for-TV eating competition called Glutton Bowl #1, and in 2003 lost a hot dog-eating contest to a Kodiak bear on the show Man vs. Beast. In 2006 he became a world champion at eating bratwurst, downing 58 sausages in 10 minutes. However, Kobayashi's world record for hot dogs was broken in 2007 by Joey Chestnut, who ate 59 and 1/2 hot dogs at a contest in Tempe, Arizona. Chestnut and Kobayashi then went head-to-head at the 2007 4th of July contest: Kobayashi ate a personal record 63 hot dogs in 12 minutes, but Chestnut topped him with 66 dogs.

Extra credit: Kobayashi's special technique has been called the "Solomon method" -- breaking each hot dog in two, then stuffing both halves in his mouth... One of Kobayashi's opponents at the 2003 Nathan's competition was former NFL star William "The Refrigerator" Perry, who dropped out after eating a mere four hot dogs.

Read about Kobayashi, Evel Knievel and other offbeat daredevils in our loop More Audacity Than Cranial Capacity... For a peek at other big eaters, see our loop Died Plump.

Blog posts mentioning Takeru Kobayashi:
There's a New Glutton in Town