It’s revolting, gross, disgusting. I can barely watch it, if I watch it at all.

Whenever I see a clip of it I visualize the barf-o-rama scene from the 1986 movie “Stand by Me.”

I’m talking about competitive eating events like the Fourth of July hot dog eating contest at New York’s Coney Island, or any other gastrointestinal reality show.

An instant classic it’s not. It’s more like an instant gag reflex.

Yet, I’m here to be quite hypocritical and say it could one day be an Olympic sport.

Say again? Who’s to say it can’t be?

I can see the trepidation from allowing such gluttonous behavior into such an athletic stage. If competitive eating is allowed in, where will it stop? Will drinking games be next, with competitive gulping divisions in beer, whiskey and tequila?

But if you look at it with an open mind, it’s competition. There’s even a league for competitive eaters called Major League Eating, which was formed in 1997.

It’s set up to be a summer Olympic sport. The Fourth of July event could become the U.S. Trials, which would be on a similar timeline of track and field and gymnastics. Trials could be held around the world. All you need is more eaters from other countries.

I mean, who would have thought eons ago, a picnic sport like beach volleyball or a recreational activity such as rock climbing would become Olympic sports? The same can be said of break dancing, or breaking, which is making its debut in a few weeks in the Paris Olympics. Are pickleball or slap fighting on the horizon?

Breakers, though, might be pound-for-pound the best acrobats in Paris, with a mind-boggling ability to spin like a top on their heads and bend their bodies like contortionists.

But let’s get back to the subject that’s tough to stomach.

While the thought of competitive eating being an Olympic sport would be hard to digest, I have to give these gurgitators their due.

The top eaters train like how athletes do. They self-analyze their techniques, work to improve on their weaknesses, and boast a competitive mentality like any other elite athlete. They not only transform their bodies, but they put their bodies on the line.

A recent “30 for 30” episode titled “The Good, The Bad, The Hungry” featured two of the all-time best competitive eaters in Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut.

Kobayashi, listed at 5 feet 8 and 128 pounds, said in the episode that he “looked at himself as creating a new sport” when he began competing in America in the early 2000s.

He trained for speed and worked on his technique to become a masterfully efficient eater. He won six Nathan’s hot dog eating contest titles in a row (2001-06).

Chestnut, listed at 6-1 and 229 pounds, came in third in his first competition in 2005, which surprised him. It started his competitive juices flowing and he took aim at the top dog.

In the episode, Chestnut would train, of course by eating, but also by strengthening his neck and jaw muscles by biting hard on a ball that was attached to an additional weighted object for resistance, thereby strengthening all the muscles he said that are used to gulp down the food.

Chestnut would eventually become the don, dethroning the man who was described as “the godfather of competitive eating.”

He won the Nathan’s contest title eight years in a row on two different occasions (2007-14 and 2016-23). He was banned from this year’s Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contests in Brooklyn, N.Y., because he partnered with a plant-based rival brand.

Chestnut — who, according to USA Today, made $500,000 in 2022 for his eating prowess — instead held his own Fourth of July scarf-a-thon.

He challenged a group of four Army soldiers at Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas. He wolfed down 57 hot dogs in five minutes compared to 49 combined for the soldiers. The winner at Nathan’s ate 58 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

Of course, everyone knows there are no health benefits when it comes to competitive eating. It could lead to obesity and occasionally to death to the untrained. Sportingnews.com reported there have been no choking deaths associated with professional competitive eaters.

Furthermore, studies have shown that the recommended daily calorie intake for a normal person is 2,000 to 2,500.

According to Dan Treacy in a sportingnews.com article on July 2, Chestnut consumed 22,800 calories in 10 minutes when he set a record with 76 hot dogs eaten during the 2021 Nathan’s event.

Treacy also reported that Chestnut gained 23 pounds during the contest. He reported that it took Chestnut a few days to fast and lose the weight.

Chestnut said in the article that he doesn’t get ill during competition. He just sweats profusely and smells like hot dogs.

As far as expelling the food, Treacy quoted Chestnut as saying, “It’s natural. If you eat a lot of food, you’re going to go to the bathroom.”

Chestnut says it takes him two days “to really start to feel normal again.”

“It’s hard on the body, there’s no way around it,” he said.

So however you feel about the exhibition, these competitive chow-hounds deserve our respect for what they have to endure.

An episode from “The Simpsons” might have said it best.

“That’s gonna hurt coming out.”