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Competitive Eater Hopes to Become No. 1
Aired July 04, 2003 - 13:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Stuffing your face takes a will of iron and a stomach of steel. Bruce Burkhardt says a mouthful in this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's all about focus, wanting it badly enough. In one year, Dale Boone has climbed from nowhere to be ranked number eight in the world. He's likely to be named Rookie of the Year, and on this day he is training, zeroing in on what lies ahead.
Georgia native Dale Boone is a professional competitive eater, no kidding. There's actually an International Federation of Competitive Eating, a regular circuit, and some 300 folks like Dale who pride themselves on stuffing more down their throats than anyone else and not just hot dogs.
DALE BOONE, COMPETITIVE EATER: This is the world championship of the pelmenis.
BURKHARDT: The what?
BOONE: Pelmeni, the Russian dumplings.
BURKHARDT: They have a contest just for Russian dumplings?
BOONE: Yes.
BURKHARDT: But right now it's Coney Island that Dale is worried about, the Super Bowl of eating contests, Nathan's Hot Dog Contest on July 4th. He's hoping to dethrone the reigning champ, the unlikely Takeru Kobayashi who obliterated all the records last year when he somehow stuffed 50 hot dogs into his 113-pound body in 12 minutes, bloating up to a whopping 120 by the last dog.
Do we dress them up or just have them plain?
BOONE: Just plain, if you dress them up that will mess you up.
BURKHARDT: OK.
BOONE: Always remember that, dress them up, mess them up.
BURKHARDT: I'll remember that. And remember this, too, for Dale and the promoters of this sport it's just that, a sport, not a freak show.
BOONE: You're talking about highly skilled, highly trained, highly dangerous sport that's what we do. Competitive eating is all three of those.
BURKHARDT: Dale whose coon skin hat is a tribute to his ancestor Daniel Boone considers himself a pioneer too bringing competitive eating, dominated by northerners to his beloved south. You doing OK?
It's been a good training session. The six-foot, 300-pounder buried 15 dogs, ten of them in just under six minutes. Watch out Coney Island here comes the mouth of the south.
BOONE: It's like taking candy from a baby.
BURKHARDT: Bruce Burkhardt, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 4, 2003 - 13:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Stuffing your face takes a will of iron and a stomach of steel. Bruce Burkhardt says a mouthful in this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's all about focus, wanting it badly enough. In one year, Dale Boone has climbed from nowhere to be ranked number eight in the world. He's likely to be named Rookie of the Year, and on this day he is training, zeroing in on what lies ahead.
Georgia native Dale Boone is a professional competitive eater, no kidding. There's actually an International Federation of Competitive Eating, a regular circuit, and some 300 folks like Dale who pride themselves on stuffing more down their throats than anyone else and not just hot dogs.
DALE BOONE, COMPETITIVE EATER: This is the world championship of the pelmenis.
BURKHARDT: The what?
BOONE: Pelmeni, the Russian dumplings.
BURKHARDT: They have a contest just for Russian dumplings?
BOONE: Yes.
BURKHARDT: But right now it's Coney Island that Dale is worried about, the Super Bowl of eating contests, Nathan's Hot Dog Contest on July 4th. He's hoping to dethrone the reigning champ, the unlikely Takeru Kobayashi who obliterated all the records last year when he somehow stuffed 50 hot dogs into his 113-pound body in 12 minutes, bloating up to a whopping 120 by the last dog.
Do we dress them up or just have them plain?
BOONE: Just plain, if you dress them up that will mess you up.
BURKHARDT: OK.
BOONE: Always remember that, dress them up, mess them up.
BURKHARDT: I'll remember that. And remember this, too, for Dale and the promoters of this sport it's just that, a sport, not a freak show.
BOONE: You're talking about highly skilled, highly trained, highly dangerous sport that's what we do. Competitive eating is all three of those.
BURKHARDT: Dale whose coon skin hat is a tribute to his ancestor Daniel Boone considers himself a pioneer too bringing competitive eating, dominated by northerners to his beloved south. You doing OK?
It's been a good training session. The six-foot, 300-pounder buried 15 dogs, ten of them in just under six minutes. Watch out Coney Island here comes the mouth of the south.
BOONE: It's like taking candy from a baby.
BURKHARDT: Bruce Burkhardt, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
