Not to be outdone by the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Krystal Square Off V World Hamburger Eating Championship will host an Opening Ceremony today in downtown Chattanooga. The ceremony will start up at 1:00 pm EST with the official lighting of the Krystal Square Off Grill to signify the beginning of this year’s Krystal Square Off Qualifying Tour.

After the lighting, Chattanoogans are invited to join the first ever “Running of the Grill” down Chestnut Street, complete with a police escort, parade of vehicles with local dignitaries, the Krystal cycling team on bikes and a host of Krystal employees.

The procession will end down at the Riverfront, where Krystal’s VP of Marketing Brad Wahl and George Shea from Major League Eating will host a press conference to set the stage for this year’s competitive eating contest, and immediately afterwards, Chattanooga’s most popular news personalities will compete in a 2-minute Krystal burger eating contest.

Head over to our sister site, the Krystal Square Off Blog, to find out which media personalities are competing and for more details. They’ll also have updates throughout the day, including photos, video and more.

Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps consumes 12,000 calories a day. Perhaps he's the next Krystal Square Off Champion?

Rumor has it Olympian Michael Phelps is going to take a short break from swimming after the Beijing Games. So what do you think the world’s greatest Olympic athlete of all time will do next?

Well, considering he gobbles down 12,000 calories a day, we think he should take on the world’s best competitive eaters. He’d only have to add a couple thousand extra calories to his already enormous daily intake.

See, last year’s Krystal Square Off champion Joey Chestnut ate 103 Krystal burgers in 8 minutes. With each Krystal consisting of 160 calories, that’s only a total of 16,480 calories. Definitely doable for Phelps.

Then, of course, there’s the whole speed eating issue – but for some reason, we don’t think being fast is a problem Phelps would have.

So what do you say Michael? The Krystal Square Off V is the next event on the eating circuit, and it’s not until the end of September, so you have plenty of time to prepare.

And since competitive eating is considered one of the world’s fastest growing sports, perhaps it will be an Olympic event by the time the 2012 games in London roll around. Then Phelps, you can add to your already ridiculous medal count in another sport.

Head over to the Wall Street Journal Health Blog for an article about Phelp’s diet.

And check out Eatfeats for a slideshow that details what other Olympians, both past and present, consume. It’s amazing.

*photo courtesy of AP.