In any sport, those who compete will seek to find an advantage on their competitors, even if it means they need to cheat to do so. And so the question of performance enhancing substances has come to the world of competitive eating.
Tomorrow at the World Pie Eating Contest in Britain -- contestants will undergo random drug testing. Rather than the state fair, fruit-filled entries you're thinking of, this is the traditional meat pie concoctions.
As for what constitutes cheating, Executive President Tony Callaghan offers up his explanation:
Gravy has traditionally been the performance-enhancing drug of choice amongst pie eaters at this level, but since we banned it after a series of questionable concoctions were created by contenders, they've been trying to find other ways of generating lubricative advantage - and we're hearing rumours that cough mixture is the new Bisto [British brand known for making gravy].
The belief is that gravy makes it easier to swallow the meat pies and eliminates the very essence of the challenge. It's the same rules that apply to the saltine bar bet -- one of the few eating challenges I've ever attempted and won -- which says that you can't eat five saltines in a minute. The rules of the bet stipulate that you're not allowed to drink water, which by the third saltine is a clear issue.
The issue of performance enhancing substances hasn't yet crossed the pond -- in part because it's difficult to assess what would make a hot dog eating challenge easier. The competitors are already allowed to dunk the buns in water and condiments would just seem to add additional calories and the potential for more heartburn.
The closest the International Federation of Competitive Eating has come to controversy has been at the 2008 Nathan's Famous Fourth of July international hot dog eating event when Japanese professional eater Takeru Kobayashi apparently threw up in his mouth -- one of the few rules on the books that calls for immediate disqualification.
My recommendation if someone was to ask for my advice on how to game the eating contest system is the same method that was featured prominently in an Encyclopedia Brown story that I read as a boy. Ice your tongue -- it's the only way to avoid tasting everything that you eat over the course of the contest.
[Image via Flickr: tony the misfit]
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In the States they had a guy drink salmon chowder during the whole 6 minutes contest when the rules clearly stated that you had to us a spoon to eat the chowder . That same guy also used his fingers to hold the shells in an oyster contest earlier in the year when you were only allowed to use a fork . Looks like that guy is ahead of our chEATERS.
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