Takeru Kobayashi

Takeru Kobayashi (小林尊, Kobayashi Takeru) (born March 15, 1978) is a Japanese competitive eater. He held the world record for hot dog eating for nearly six years, and holds several other eating records, including three Guinness Records for hot dogs, meatballs, and hamburgers. Born in Nagano, Japan, Kobayashi set his first record at his rookie appearance on July 4, 2001, when he ate 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes at the Nathan's Coney Island hot dog-eating contest, doubling the previous record of 25. The record was so unexpected that when Kobayashi got to the later numbers, the organizers ran out of signs indicating how many dogs Kobayashi had eaten and had to resort to handwritten signs. Kobayashi would go on to break his own record three times in winning the contest six consecutive times (2001–2006). On June 2, 2007, Joey Chestnut broke Kobayashi's record with 59.5…

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