I have three problems with competitive eating, although I love lots of other sports.
One is the waste. There are way to many hungry people to glorify this kind of waste of food. It’s true that there are lots of things that waste food (I think about how much is thrown out at restaurants every day), but this somehow elevates it. An argument could be made that most sports and entertainment are somehow wasteful, for example, since oil is scarce, driving cars around in circles might seem kind of wasteful, but this just feels more direct to me. Sometimes, when I think about a contest like this, I wonder if there are kids in the audience who haven’t had a good meal and would like just one of the hot dogs that these people shove down.
The second is the animal suffering that goes into producing a hot dog. While I understand that most people don’t think it’s immoral to eat meat, I do think that if people knew what happened at modern slaughterhouses and factory farms, they would have a problem with that part of it. Some justify the suffering saying that the animal suffers and dies to nourish a person, so that makes it worthwhile. But turning this suffering into entertainment is no different in my opinion than other forms of animal suffering for entertainment, like dogfighting.
Finally, people have so much trouble with eating healthy, that celebrating people who eat excessive amounts by giving them accolades and awards seems improper. It reminds me of a contest where people tried to see who could have the most sex partners in one day.