By: Carol Dong

James Webb used to be an Australian professional soccer player, but he developed cataracts at the age of 27. His vision became blurry and he could not move very well. He gave up his soccer dream and decided to enter many food-eating contests. In the first contest he competed in, he ate 38 pancakes in one hour, breaking the Australian record in Brisbane. He also broke many other records such as devouring 17 sausage sizzle sandwiches in three minutes.

He suffered from Guillain-Barre syndrome, or GBS, an auto-immune disorder when he was 27. GBS is a rare disease in which the body’s immune system attacks its nerves. It can cause paralysis, which means you cannot move your body anymore. Webb had to use a ventilator because he could not breathe by himself very well. The doctors told him he would never walk again. But thanks to a new form of treatment and eye surgery, he slowly regained his sight and taught himself how to walk and breathe without a ventilator. Now Webb is fit and healthy — he weighs 91 kg with 10 percent body fat — and goes to the gym every day.

Webb broke many records, according to Kids News, he ate 38 pancakes in one hour in his first contest and broke the Australian record in Brisbane. A few weeks later, in Toowoomba, he finished a 3.5kg doughnut in under 20 minutes. Another competition he joined was when he ate 47 hotdogs in 10 minutes at Coney Island.

According to Kids News, Webb was invited to the 2022 America’s Major-League Eating competition in the United States. He stayed there for 10 days and completed 26 food challenges in total.

Webb was a professional soccer player before he got surgery, and now he is a professional that eats food and breaks world records.