Is Hot Dog Eating Really a SPORT?
by Julie Walton, Ph.D.
Calvin College
Last month I was flipping between ESPN channels trying to find a tennis match when I came upon the telecast of the 2006 International Hot Dog Eating Championships) (see 2006 Hot Dog Eating Championships )
It was intriguing to watch Takeru Kobayashi of Japan methodically slug down hot dogs and buns while ESPN announcers gadded on about his fitness, training, and hot dog eating atleticism.
In my world of health, fitness, wellness and sport, hot dogs are nitrate-laden tubes of meat parts (and wow, does a pig or cow have some disgustingly useful parts) with a super-charged cholesterol kick. To think of a contest for which an eater seriously trains by downing dozens of dogs as a viable “sport” is ludicrous. It ranks right up there with televised poker. Oh wait! Did I tell you about the famous brat eating contest in Wisconsin?
My question is what makes sport sport? Is it play that’s ramped up on steroids? Is it competition to be the best at anything? Is a spelling bee technically a sport where junior linguistically-gifted athletes compete for the laurel wreath of wordmeisters?
I always associated sport with athletics. Yet, I recall as a child, when I went pheasant-hunting with my dad, I was surprised to discover that hunting was a sport. Now, apparently, so is eating, and gambling and playing the infamously satisfying game of Pooh sticks. Come to think of it, I might just enter a contest for who can flick channels between ESPN and ESPN2 the fastest. I might just be the most athletic and highly trained sport channel changer in the whole world. Bring it on!
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