Generally you probably think of a “sport” as something you do to burn off all of the calories in the food you’ve eaten. But can eating be a sport in and of itself? According to competitive eaters worldwide it can be!

Think about the last big meal you ate — maybe a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner when you stuffed yourself silly with more food in a meal than you might typically eat in a day. Think about how full you felt after that meal, when you weren’t even sure you could get dessert down, no matter how much you wanted that slice of pumpkin pie. Now picture yourself eating that meal ten times as fast. Imagine that one over-filled plate of food turning into a dozen, all eaten rapidly. Now how do you think you’d feel when someone offered you that pie?

Children's Pie Eating Contest - 1923 - Credit: FordMaddoxFraud (via Wikimedia)

That’s a simple way to think about competitive eating — people compete to see who can eat the most food the fastest.

I can’t say competitive eating sounds appealing to me, but it’s popular worldwide, so what do I know? There are even professional associations for the sport — the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) and the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters (AICE)!

Types of Foods Found in Eating Contests

Competitive eating isn’t limited to the old fashioned notion of a pie eating contest or even hot dog eating contest (like the popular Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, held annually at Coney Island for more than 90 years).

While eating contests usually are focused on a single type of food, that food can be seemingly anything. Here are ten examples of foods from eating contests sanctioned by the IFOCE to give you a better idea:

At the Nathans Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest - Credit: buzz.bishop (via Flickr)

1. Chili
2. Corn Dogs
3. Pumpkin Pies
4. Watermelon
5. Pizza
6. Tacos
7. Butter
8. Baked Beans
9. Oysters
10. Birthday Cake

I have to say, I really did a double-take when I saw butter on the list. Yuck. Can you even imagine putting down 1.75 lbs of salted butter in five minutes like record holder, Don Lerman? I sure can’t!

While most of the foods seem to be relatively “bad” foods to begin with, you can find some competitive eating events specialized in healthier options like the watermelon included above, peas, and asparagus (okay, so the asparagus doesn’t really count since it was deep-fried, but it sure sounds better than a pigs’ feet and knuckles eating contest if you ask me — and yes, there’s really a record holder in that!).

How is Competitive Eating Considered a Sport?

Pat Bertoletti and Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest 2008 - Credit: dietrich (via Flickr)

“It’s just eating. It’s not a sport!” you might be thinking. Then again, you might be surprised by the amount of preparation and training that can go into safely participating in eating contests. Just like an athlete might train for months before running a marathon, professional competitive eaters can spend months preparing for eating contests (and given that prizes can amount to thousands of dollars, it’s no wonder they train that long!).

How exactly does someone “train” for a competitive eating event anyway? Why, they stretch their stomach of course! Think about it. Your stomach isn’t naturally designed to hold quantities of food like some of these records:

1. 47 slices of pizza (in 10 minutes by Patrick Bertoletti)
2. 8 lbs, 2 oz of chili cheese fries (in 10 minutes by Sonia Thomas)
3. 42 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (in 10 minutes, also by Patrick Bertoletti)

To win eating contests competitive eaters have to increase their stomach’s capacity. It naturally stretches as needed, but takes time to build the organ’s elasticity enough for it to expand to hold these amounts of foods in such short periods of time.

In order to get that needed elasticity, the competitive eaters “train” by consuming large amounts prior to the contest (for months in some cases). Sometimes they’ll do it by eating the contest food, allowing them to test their times and try to beat their own records to improve (probably not the healthiest option, if any of it can be considered truly “healthy” — healthy as in would someone ever say “eat competitively, it’s good for you!”). In other cases, they’ll fill up on bulky but low calorie vegetables, or drink large amounts of water (sometimes gallons) to get their stomachs ready for their next eating contest.

You can see the stretched / distended belly on the competitor on the left - Credit: dietrich (via Flickr)

Competitive eating isn’t only like other sports because there’s training involved. There are also rules and judges to make sure competitive eaters abide by them. For example, some IFOCE competitors use a technique called “dunking” (literally dunking their food in water or another liquid first) to make the food easier to put down (although I’m baffled by the fact the fluid weight wouldn’t fill you up faster!). The AICE, on the other hand, doesn’t allow it. If eaters leave too much food on the plate (excessive “crumbs” for example, so they actually ate less food) the judges might dock them points in their final count. And there are even rules about vomiting — yes, vomiting (as in what counts as vomiting, and what doesn’t in respect to judging those final counts). Yum.

Winning a taco eating contest - Credit: BigStockPhoto.com

Now I’m a fan of Nathan’s hot dogs, and since they run probably the biggest eating contest around (it’s actually televised on ESPN, so take that those of you who still don’t think it’s a sport!), I’ll pick on them for a moment. Watch the video below and tell me if it makes you want to run to your nearest Nathan’s for a good ol’ dog.

Hmmmm. Not me. One is enough thank you — maybe two if I feel like gorging. But after watching that, not only do I not find Nathans as appetizing, but I may lose a pound or two this week shunning food altogether. My stomach’s almost churning just watching.

Anybody hungry for wings? - Credit: stephenjjohnson (via Flickr)

The beautiful 16-day Olympic dream came to an end on August 24, 2008 at the Bird’s Nest National Stadium. The world looked in awe as the poignant love story came to an end, bathed in a kaleidoscope of color with the mesmerizing dance patterns, breathtakingly spectacular choreography and grand fireworks.

The closing ceremony of one of the most remarkable Olympics the world has seen in recent times was an emotion filled affair. The celebration of unity, brotherhood of humanity and China’s reassertion that there is nothing impossible was all there for the crowd of more than 90,000 and the whole world to see.

The motto of the Olympics, “Higher, faster, stronger” was outlined in the best possibly way by the athletes, who surged ahead with their world-breaking sporting performances and by the host athletes, who showed excellence and dominance in such a way that they redefined the image of the communist nation internationally.

China was on top of the world and there was not a single soul that grudged them their success. For China, it was a journey of confidence and self-belief. The doubts had melted, leaving feelings of euphoria in their wake.

The IOC President Jacques Rogge declared the games closed with the words, “Tonight, we come to the end of 16 glorious days which we will cherish forever. Through these Games, the world learned more about China, and China learned more about the world. These were truly exceptional games.”

The feeling of a sudden emptiness was felt by all the athletes gathered together, as the Olympic flag was brought down. But the raising of Great Britain’s flag signaled the beginning of a new journey: London 2012 Olympics. The cameo by London, host of the 2012 Summer Games, which included soccer star David Beckham who came into the stadium standing on top of a red double-decker bus and kicked a ball into the stadium, gave life to the crowd.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown attended and the London Mayor, Boris Johnson received the Olympic flag from Beijing Mayor, Go Jinlong.

Before that, Leona Lewis with the song “Whole lot of love” and Led Zappelin set the pulses racing in the stadium. Then it was time to extinguish the Olympic flame.

It was estimated that China invested more than $40 billion in these Olympics and called the world for a party that showcased China’s dramatic economic progress.

China stood first in the gold medals tally with 51 gold medals as compared to 36 by the United States, which stood second. However, in the overall tally of medals, the United States showed it is second to none and did proud to the nation by standing first with a total of 110 medals as against China’s 100.

Here are a few indelible moments in the Olympics:

• Any talk of Beijing Olympics cannot be complete without mentioning the 23-year-old swimming sensation Michael Phelps who became the face of the games, by beating Mark Spitz’s record of 1972 of seven golds in a Games – a dream Phelps realized by winning 8 medals in the Beijing Olympics.

Phelps said he owed his success to his mother who also sent him several cell phone messages of encouragement, and he joyously mentioned that he was the one who taught his mother how to send these messages.

• Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won three golds and beat the 100 meters world record. Bolt already owned the records and in front of a packed Bird’s Nest stadium he ran 9.69 seconds. He thumped his chest in triumph over the last few meters before his “marksman” celebration, which become one of the lasting images of the games.

• The battle of the giants was won by German Weightlifter, Matthias Steiner, who received his gold, choking back on tears over the promise he made to his late wife Susann that he would keep their Olympic dream. The super-heavyweight made the pledge to her at her bedside in hospital as she lay dying after a car crash in 2007. He held up a picture of Susann and said, “I thought of her before the competition.”

• Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva won a gold medal and world record-breaking pole vault performance that captivated the crowd. After spending most of the competition lying under a towel, she broke her own world record with a leap of 5.05 meters.

Not all Olympic moments were filled with joy and happiness and there were a few heart-rending moments too.

American Matt Emmons had just thrown away another gold medal at the Olympics. In the very last shot of a competition of 120 shots, he blew a 3.3-point lead. The same thing happened four years ago in Athens, where he had fired at the wrong target and threw away a 3-point lead. This is looked at as one of the most shocking moments of the Olympics.

Speaking of shocks, the whole of China felt a shock when Liu Xiang had to walk away from the tract because of his leg injury. Liu is the most popular sportsman in China and his departure clouded the Games for millions of fans.

There was a grim moment during the opening weekend and that was the attack on U.S. volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon’s father-in-law, who was stabbed by a Chinese man who later killed himself.

The Beijing Olympics was filled with drama of all kinds and left spectators awed by the impact of it all. All potential liabilities such as concerns over pollution and potential political upheaval vanished into the smog filled air and turned the event into a triumph that will be remembered for a long time to come and has set new standards for all future Olympics.

How about just picking up that car from the corner of the office room, taking it out, unfolding it and driving it back home? The new sports car is almost like a toy car coming to life.

A sports car that can be folded into half is the most innovative creation of a young 22-year-old British designer, Daniel Bailey. He states that his creation has been inspired by the Peugeot 908 and Lamborghini Murcielago.

According to Bailey, this sexy, sleek and mean looking car goes up on its nose, allowing the back wheels to slide under the car on two rollers. This way, it becomes half its size and makes parking easy. Obviously, people will have to get out of the car before it can be folded.

Bailey says that this car will run on hydrogen fuel or electricity and he came up with the concept of a folding car, in order to take care of the two main problems that most modern cities face; that of pollution and population. The lack of parking space in major cities due to the large number of cars is a big issue and the ability to fold a car up to 50% of its original size when parking, alleviates the need for creating even more parking space.

This design has been submitted by Bailey in a competition held by Peugeot to create a concept car that is designed to evolve perfectly in the cities of the future with large population and huge number of cars; while including aspects such as environmental awareness, economic efficiency, social harmony and interactive mobility.

A similar prototype of a lightweight electric folding car model is said to be under creation by scientists led by Bill Mitchell, professor of architecture, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT.) This stackable and foldable car is named, “City Car.” MIT says this car can be mass produced and rented by commuters following a business model of shared-use. It can be folded and stacked just like grocery carts either at subway stations or other sites. The key to this concept is said to lie in the wheels design.

It is interesting to note that the concept of a foldable car is not really new. History is witness to several such wonderful and highly talented designing capabilities. It was as early as the 1950s, S.N.C.A.N., the French aircraft builders began working on an auto-scooter using the aeronautical designing principles. It was named “Inter” and was introduced in 1953 at a Paris Show. The only difference is that it folded forward unlike David Bailey’s creation where the back wheels are folded. Records of that car reveal that the front wheels were mounted on outriggers and folded forward under the car, to help parking in narrow spaces. For some reason, it has been said that this feature has been eliminated from the cars made later.

Experts say that electric cars if ever they are truly capable of being mass produced can certainly come cheap, since there is nothing very expensive or complicated to them, excepting the batteries. They say that a shared use model alleviates the need for the drivers to buy batteries, and it would bring the per mile cost down, much lower than the per mile cost of gasoline. The lead-acid batteries are inexpensive, so replacing a battery will not be a problem too. Even if the battery is on the expensive side, it would be much longer lasting.

This ingenious thinking and creativity is wonderful and certainly would reduce parking space requirement and reduce pollution. A question that comes to the minds of the non-tech savvy amongst us is about the foldable car that is non-stackable. If everyone parks their folded cars next to each other, how does one go about getting the car out? Will it have some sort of a handle that can be used to pull it into the street?

Experts are keeping their eyes open on the Peugeot design competition to see what innovative concepts will show up. The flying car may not be far away, going by the advancements being made in the area of flying human beings, which calls for a different story-telling session altogether.

Once upon a time, when India was yet to start shining, the evening entertainment was taken care of: watching Maradona or Platini on TV. Then India reached out and a new phenomenon unraveled in India: cricket. From a mere sport, it was becoming a passion, or even a religion as some cricket lovers would say.

Today, with the unfolding of the DLF Indian Premier League, the way cricket is looked at will never be the same again. The World’s best players match their wits, skills and energies and the game’s popularity is all set to reach its crescendo.

The Indian Premier League is a Twenty20 cricket (a short match where only 20 overs are played) competition created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI.) The first season of IPL commenced on a high note, amidst a lot of glitter on April 18, 2008, with some high voltage action.

The DLF Indian Premier league will feature eight teams/franchises and will run for 44 days. During the season, each team will play a home match and a match away from home against every other team. There will be two semi-finals where the top four teams will contest and a final match.

The success of this story is embedded deep inside the concept itself. For the first time, a League of this nature is being tried out. For people who are expecting IPL to be as encompassing as the English Premiership or the NBA may be in for a disappointment. All big leagues have reached their current levels after decades of evolution. IPL may eventually reach there, but the general feeling is that it is going to take time.

It is not all about the numbers at the grounds: the IPLs greater combat will be on the TRP charts. That depends on the number of eyeballs the vanilla teams attract.

The battle will not be just about cricket though. Television channels have braced to fight each other in order to provide footage of the matches as well as other IPL related news. The global broadcasting rights for the Indian premier league were secured by a consortium of India’s very own Sony Entertainment Television network and World Sport Group of Singapore. The deal is for ten years will cost the consortium a total of US$ 1.026 billion; $918 million to the BCCI towards television broadcast right and US$108 million towards tournament promotion. This money will be distributed amount all the concerned parties, with IPL taking 20%, 8% prize money and 72% to the franchises.

IPL has also entered into a contract with Live Current Media of Canada, to run and operate its online portals. The price negotiated is a huge USD 50 million over the next ten years.

IPL has already shown how powerful it is: players have become rich overnight and they are happy; some of the players have even retired to be a part of IPL.

According to rumors, England is also planning a similar league. Sooner or later, every Board will see its potential and try to start one. Experts in the field are sure that one day, Twenty20 leagues will become the most important part of cricket in every country. Test matches and one-dayers may just fizzle out over a period of time.

IPL is a significant step in the revolution that has begun and the evening entertainment will not be the same again. A live twenty20 match provides adrenalin packed entertainment for the whole family.