Takeru Kobayashi is the six-time winner of the Nathan's Famous frankfurter 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 existing 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), in 2005 (49 dogs) and in 2006 (another new record, of 53 and three-quarters dogs).
His startling chow prowess has 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.
Technique
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. July 4th 2007Joey Chestnut, a California graduate student, unseated six-time defending champion Takeru Kobayashi of Japan at the 2007 Nathan's Famous International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest. On his way, he shattered his own record for hot dog consumption, slogging down 66 wieners in 12 minutes. Chestnut also took the Mustard Belt again in 2008 in a 5 dog shoot out after they had tied 59 Hot Dogs a piece in 10 minutes. For the third time in 2009 Joey took the win downing 68 hot dogs and buns. It was a 3.5 lead over Kobayashi who ate 64.5 hot dogs.Kobayashi, whose jaw condition was questionable in the run up to 2007's competition, swallowed 63 hot dogs -- keeping pace with Chestnut but never taking the lead.
After his momentous loss, Kobayashi proclaimed that he'll be out for blood in 2008. "I will definitely beat him next year," Kobayashi said.
On June 2, 2007 Chestnut broke Kobayashi's 53.75 hot dog record, set at the 2006 championship. Chestnut consumed a whopping 59.50 dogs in 12 minutes, an ingestion rate of nearly one wiener every 12 seconds. The dream matchup took a dramatic turn 10 days ago when Kobayashi reported on his own blog that a jaw injury that left him unable to open his mouth more than the width of a fingernail may keep him out of this year's competition altogether.
Just an hour before the competition was set to begin, Kobayashi was working on his jaw flexibility with an acupuncturist.