Will the Prophesy be Fulfilled?

You can understand why people used to scoff when the prophesy was mentioned. Ten years ago it was inconceivable that the Coveted Mustard Yellow Belt would be held by an eater from another nation. So it seemed impossible to imagine that it would take a hero in the form of a 105-pound woman to bring the belt home.

But now people are paying attention to the prophesy. After watching Takeru Kobayashi dominate the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest three years in a row they realize something supernatural is required to regain our position. It is at this point that the phenomenon appears: Sonya Thomas.

Snippets of the prohesy, handed down through an oral tradition, are now circulating throughout the competitive eating community like a mantra of optimism. "It will be a diminutive woman who will galvanize American eaters." "A gentle, disarming woman will rise like Joan of Arc before her to defend the honor of a nation." "She will be small in stature and great in power."

Such are the words that begin to outline the prosphesy of "The One Eater," a person who understand food differently than you and I. When we see a chicken sandwich, she sees proteins, peptides and enzymes. To her, food is a chemical equation, and while matter can neither be created nor destroyed, chemistry can be manipulated.

The One Eater is a hero who will lead American eaters to victory. But she is more than a hero -- she is an artist who can achieve that which we cannot, and as a result we believe she is an alchemist or magician. Could it be that she is Sonya Thomas?