American Beat: Japanese Sputnik

Is this going to finally be America's Sputnik moment? Technically, that moment should've come last year, when Takeru Kobayashi ate 50 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes at the annual July 4 hot dog-eating contest at Coney Island. Sure, the Japanese had beaten the Americans at their own game many times before, but Kobayashi's 50 doubled the existing record set just a year before by his countryman Kazatoyo Arai.

It was a stunning athletic achievement.

And then, lightning struck again. This year, on our national holiday, Kobayashi did the impossible. In saunalike conditions, the man they call "The Tsunami" downed 50 1/2 hot dogs and buns to break his own record.

The nearest American competitor, Eric "Badlands" Booker, ate a mere 26.

When people ask me-and they always ask me-"How does a tiny guy like that eat 13 pounds of hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes?", I respond with a mixture of awe, surprise, horror and resignation. Kobayashi, I say, is simply the greatest eater in the history of the world.

But yesterday, it hit me: The question shouldn't be, "How does he do it?" but "Why can't we do it?" In other words, it's not Kobayashi's achievement that is so stunning, but America's failure.