The Athletic Way

By Justin Albers
Basketballss132002@yahoo.com
CLEVELAND- It is a topic that has been highly debated about this time of year. The Fourth of July marks a day of fireworks and family time, but it also marks the famous hot dog eating contest on ESPN.
The question the nation has been debating for some time is “Are these ‘eaters’ considered athletes?” Let me start out by saying how amazing it is to eat 59 ½ hot dogs in 12 minutes; that seems almost impossible. However, I do not consider these animals to be athletes.
Baseball, football, basketball, soccer, swimming- these are all sports that require a person to stay in excellent physical shape, and besides football, all of them make you healthier and increase your chances to live a longer life. This hot dog eating contest is wrong in every sense of the word. It is certainly not healthy to consume more hot dogs in 12 minutes than most people consume in a year. It more than likely takes years off of the lives of the individuals “competing” and will cause them to have all sorts of internal problems at a young age.
Now these eaters are going to come back with the argument that “Hey, this is very competitive, so it has to be a sport.” Give me a break. Video games can be competitive, and they certainly are not a sport. Or maybe they will say “But we have to train for a long time to get ready for this, so of course we are athletes.” Please. Drinking gallons and gallons of water does not constitute a training regimen, only a very boring afternoon where there was nothing else to do.
So these so-called “athletes” can pig out all they want in tomorrow’s eating contest, and people will watch, but only to make fun. These people need to find a real sport to get themselves into, and beer drinking doesn’t count.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Should these competitive eaters be considered athletes?