Competative sports?

How do athletes exercise to maintain their competitive edge?

Competitive sports are as much a staple of our modern day society as they have been throughout history. Of course, what with the advantages of new fangled electronic media millions of viewers are able to watch a competitive sport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Professional and amateur athletes alike are subjected to criticism from around the world. They have to stay in shape to be at the top of their game or face constant ridicule from armchair experts. Sports are big business! In my opinion, somewhere along the way, the term "sport" has been altered far from it's original intent. A couple of examples if I may:

#1- Competitive eating
#2- Competitive poker

Just how does one prepare themselves physically to endure the trials and tribulations in either one of those sports?
 Umm, let's see now. Eat so much as to stretch the stomach to capacities never before seen in the civilized world. Practice exercising the throat muscles holding down food so you don't puke.
When it comes to cards it's important to work your butt enough to build up protective callouses for hours of sitting. Facial muscles must be trained to maintain a constant "poker face".

Two "sports" I simply don't understand as being spectator friendly. Seeing someone puke or another person push a pile of tokens is not high on my agenda.

An entire channel of broadcasting can be dedicated to just about anything these days as long as it is deemed a sport. Where is the Chess channel? Where is the kite flying channel? Where is the crepitation channel? And, as long as we are at it: Where is the competitive sleeping channel? Oh wait, maybe it's already here.

Enjoy the day. If you need a good night's sleep there are a couple sports to watch that will help.