It is well known that the United States has exported sports across the world. Some of the most great sporting inventions of the land of the free include basketball, baseball, volleyball, and obviously, competitive eating.
This great American competitive sport has even found its way to Belgium, where each year in Mons, Wallonia, crowds gather to witness Belgium’s iron guts gulping down hotdogs at breakneck speed. Spectators were treated to feats of culinary speed-running, as well as around 35 different food trucks, with food served at a slightly more relaxed pace.
The event is part of the TeamGrosLard Festival (TeamFatAss Festival), which was launched in 2018 in the city of Saint-Ghislain. Growing in popularity and scale, the event relocated for the first time to Mons' central Place du Parc between 1-3 July.
This year’s event featured a series of bizarre spectacles. 11 competitors lined up to take on the challenge. Before the competitors, six hotdogs, and the task to finish them in the shortest time possible. In front of hundreds of onlookers, the competitors devoured the hotdogs, with the aid of only a bottle of water.
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This year’s victor was Thierry, from Dour in Wallonia. According to broadcaster RTBF, the winner is a seasoned eater, having already participated in a competition in Spain. In just six minutes, Thierry demolished six hotdogs.
Not even children were excluded from trying their hand at the culinary sport. The organisers, providing a slightly healthier alternative to vein-clogging hot dogs, challenged eight young speed eaters to swallow four flans without the use of their hands. Certainly a bizarre site, which didn’t stop Arthur, aged 10, from taking home the win.
Budding competitive speed eaters can keep their eyes peeled for the next event at the TeamGrosLard website.
