Joey Chestnut is the face—and bottomless stomach —of the increasingly popular sport of competitive eating. The 24-year-old project engineer for a San Jose, California construction company defends his world hot dog eating championship title July 4 in a rematch against six-time champion Takeru Kobay­ashi, the Japanese eating machine whom Chestnut dethroned last year by devour­ing 66 dogs and buns in 12 minutes. It was a shocking, star-spangled upset that ranks with the U.S. Olympic hockey team beating the Russians in 1980, and cemented the 230-pound Chestnut’s status as America’s greatest gustatory gladiator. (Besides hot dogs, he holds world records in hamburgers, chicken wings, grilled cheese sandwiches, ribs, jalapeño poppers, pulled pork, and Pizza Hut P’Zones.) Chestnut trains by drinking gallons of water, milk, and protein shakes every day to stretch his stomach, while devouring dozens of wieners and buns twice a week during practice pig-outs. “There are a lot of really overweight people who can eat a ton of food,” Chestnut says. “But they can’t do it in 10 minutes, because they run out of breath.”

Chestnut, who made over $100,000 in competetive eating last year, suggests his days as a human garbage disposal may be numbered. “It’s very hard on the body,” he says. “It’s not healthy by any means. Now that I’ve accomplished my goals, I’m having trouble getting motivated to abuse my body.” But not if George Shea, president of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, has anything to say about it. With the IFOCE holding 85 contests every year, expanding overseas, and even launching a Nintendo Wii game, Shea wants his star swallower to keep his bib on. “I see him as less of an athlete and more of a patriotic hero,” Shea gushes. We couldn’t agree more.