By: Johnn Jin

34-year-old James Webb had to give up his dream career, but now competes in food eating competitions throughout America and Australia. When he breaks food world records, he can make a lot of money. In Mr. Webb’s first competition in Australia, he broke the record for eating 38 pancakes in one hour. In Melbourne weeks later, he broke the record for eating 17 sausage sizzle sandwiches in 3 minutes.

But James didn’t stop there: next in Toowoomba, he ate a 3.5 kg or 7-pound donut in under 20 minutes! In New York’s famous Nathan Hot Dog eating contest, he scored third place with 47 hot dogs eaten in 10 minutes.

Mr. Webb had finally reached his childhood dream of being a soccer player, but was put in the hospital for 18 months when he was 27 years old. He has GBS or Guillain-Barre syndrome.

With this sickness Mr. Webb was paralyzed and couldn’t breathe so he had to use a ventilator. “Basically, I went to sleep one night as a professional soccer player and woke up paralyzed,” he said. Then he developed cataracts, with the lens of his eyes growing cloudy. Because of that he became blind, so he finally gave up his soccer dream. But with new technology he regained his sight and taught himself to walk and to breathe.

Now he is healthy at 91 kg, going to the gym and eating 15 kg every day. One common misconception is that professional food eaters are overweight, but as Mr. Webb shows, this is not true: they keep fit with daily gym workouts. The list of top 10 food eaters in the world includes professional powerlifters, a cyclist, an endurance runner and two professional bodybuilders. In number 10 place is Mr. James Webb.