OregonLive has an article about competitive eating with quotes from Joey Chestnut and Carlene LeFevre. The quoted doctors are more positive about competitive eating than medical experts often are:

Patterson’s a fan of competitive eating. “I find those things fascinating to watch, actually,” she says. And gurgitators — competitive eaters’ chosen moniker — may have a healthier relationship with food than many jockeys, gymnasts and wrestlers, who can become anorexic or bulimic trying to keep their weight down.

Eating for contests is not a disorder, or “in any way contributory to any eating disorders,” says Dr. James Hancey, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health & Science University — though “to my mind, it’s the height of stupidity.”

OregonLive also has a video interview with Joey Chestnut.

• Registration for the Ash Creek (CT, August 17) rib contest and the Myrtle Beach BBQ contest (August 30) opens tomorrow
• Transcript of Joey Chestnut on CNN July 4
• Furious Pete attempts to break Cookie Jarvis’ 76 ounce steak record at J & R Steakhouse (result)
• Jill Stoler’s report on the 120 ounce steak attempts
• Video of amateur contest at Delaplane Strawberry Festival
• 17 Year old eats age in hot dogs
• Video of radio interview of Joey Chestnut and the LeFevres
• Kobayashi has a blog entry about dining at Gray’s Papaya hot dog stand with Stephen Dubner

• Kevin Ross article on pe.com
• Pete Davekos article in the Boston Herald
• Podcast of the Lefevres’ appearance on Nevada Public Radio
• column about Brooklyn Stinky Cheese contest
• Wall Street Fighter’s blog entry about attending the Nathan’s finals
• Mindy Kaling to compete in the Office Games beet eating contest
• Rich Shea clips from Awful Announcing
• Qualifier schedule on nathansfamous.com still lists June 24 Tokyo qualifier
• Michelle Lesch to go for 11th oyster eating contest at the Knysna Oyster Festival in South Africa

Video from the Travel Channel’s “Battle of the Buffets”, in which Badlands Booker, Cookie Jarvis and the LeFevres competed can be viewed on the Travel Channel’s website

Before this week’s AICE vs. Japan contest, the most recent Japanese eating contest in which multiple Americans competed was probably Food Battle Club from 2001. Not only did Carlene LeFevre and Charles Hardy compete, pro wrestler King Kong Bundy also ate in that contest. Bundy received a higher ranking (#14) than either Carlene LeFevre (#18) or Charles Hardy (#15) (I am not sure if the ranking occurred before or after the event).

KTNV has a short article and video clip about Rich & Carlene LeFevre.

A video of El Toro interviewing Rich & Carlene LeFevre can be viewed at http://hometown.aol.com/beautifulbrian43/locust.html

In an R Suzuki blog entry, a post about a Kobayashi article has a comment on whether he will retire after he turns 30 next year. The follow up comments mention that the LeFevres prove you can be competitive after that age: (automatically translated)

The [ho] and others, 60 passing also [richiyadorehuiba] (Rich LeFevre), appearing in the hot dog conference with active service, the [ru] it does.
…
Don’t you think? as for Richard record, extending, those which it increases.
The kind smiling face very is cute.
The form of the madam is not seeing the [tsu] [chi] [ya] [tsu]
Just a little it is lonesome, is.
…
Since the car lean (Carlene LeFevre) of the lady seeing with FBC (Food Battle Club), we loved.
The stake (steak) 6 piling up, don’t you think? the [tsu] [te] to be enormous being exciting to say, cute!

(from Laura Flynn) The website for the Chinook Winds Casino, the site of this weekend’s rib eating contest, has a video clip of a “Big Bertha” burger contest in which the LeFevres and Joey Chestnut competed. I am not sure what year the contest took place.

update from Rich Lefevre The contest took place in 2007 and the top 3 were:
Joey Chestnut 9:30
Rich LeFevre 9:45
Carlene LeFevre 15:15, first competition in almost 2 years.

The following names appear three or more times in the database of finisher of the 72 ounce steak from the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. The database is incomplete before 1991 and after early 2005.

The slashfood food blog has an article about the efforts of the House of LeFevre to retain the posole title. The author has a different opinion on posole than his subjects do.

Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane caught a rerun of Carlene LeFevre on Food TV’s Unwrapped (originally broadcast in 2004) and managed to record the bulk of her segment and upload the clip.

(Thanks Jason Fagone) Today’s BBC World Service podcast has a segment about competitive eating with interviews with Fagone and the LeFevres.

The Village Voice has an interview with the first couple of competitive eating.

Thanks to supersizedmeals.com for making video captures of the video clip of the LeFevres at the Big Texan steakhouse.

The clip from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not of the steak contest at the Big Texan steakhouse in which Rich LeFevre almost finished two 72 ounce steaks and Carlene sets a women’s record is available at:

http://trencherwomen.com/LeFevresSteak.WMV

The Lefevres’ attempts to eat the famous 72 ounce steak at the Big Texan steakhouse recorded by Ripley’s Believe it or Not in 2000 will be rerun on the SciFi Channel at 4 pm (eastern) Friday This might be the first appearance of competitive eating on national cable TV. The steak contest segment will probably occur at the end of the show near 5pm.

Just as the Beatles’ performance on the Ed Sullivan Show created Beatlemania, Rich and Carlene Lefevre’s appearance on Ripley’s Believe It or Not in 2000 launched their career as the world’s greatest competitive eating couple. The episode (#109) was recorded at the Big Texan steakhouse in Amarillo, Texas and both LeFevres finished the restaurants famous 72 ounce steak (two women, Tammy Hooker and Annette Havard, also finished the steak) The SciFi channel will rerun this episode on May 12 at 4pm. The Amarillo Globe News has an article about the taping.

Brian Seiken has an update about Carlene LeFevre’s status and plans on his website. While she has no definite plans to return to competitive eating in the forseeable future, she does plan to travel to New York City at the start of February to cheer on husband Rich in the goldenpalance.com grilled cheese finals. She plans to attempt some massive meals in the Big Apple, so her eating capacity has apparently not been diminished. It is not stated if Carlene plans to attend the Wing Bowl two days later. If Carlene does travel to Philadelphia and Rich takes first place and wins a car, mandating a transcontinental road trip to bring the prize to Las Vegas, perhaps the LeFevres could stop at Denny’s Beer Barrel and attempt the two-person challenge for the 15 pound burger.

In a comment on this site, Rich LeFevre provides the following response to Andrew Lane’s query about the health of his wife Carlene LeFevre, who is ranked #9 in the most recent IFOCE rankings but has not competed since being hospitalized in late summer:

Carlene wants to let all her fans know that she is doing fine and thank them for all their good wishes. Her future in competitive eating is still uncertain at this time but she’ll be at the Big Daddy burger contest in Las Vegas on 1/21 to cheer me on.

It’s is great to know that Carlene is doing all right. I hope she feels absolutely no pressure to return to competition and will not enter an eating contest unless she is 100% certain it will have no negative impact on her health. I also hope she watches Rich compete in the Wing Bowl from the press box of the Wachovia Center if she travels to Philadelphia because being in the midst of that crowd is not the optimal environment for anyone’s health.

This blog entry has a brief mention of Sonya Thomas’ Radar Magazine interview, but it has a long comment by someone who met Sonya at the 2004 Bacci Pizza contest in Chicago and also chauffeured the LeFevres during that event.

Brian Seiken’s bits & pieces page mentions that Carlene LeFevre recently took several tests at a hospital. Let’s pray that the test results do not reveal any medical problems.

The Des Moines Regsister has a very nice profile of Rich and Carlene LeFevre focusing on their appearance at the August 21 Smoked Pork Championships in Council Bluffs.

The San Jose Mercury News did not think very highly of Carlene LeFevre’s appearance at the US Open of Competitive Eating:

Morning Buzz thought the network [ESPN] reached a new low when it showed the grandma in the spaghetti-eating competition of the World Series of Competitive Eating.

I would place all the shouting sportswriters, reality dross like Dream Job and poker (can the World Series of Slot Machines be far behind?) on ESPN way below a “grandma” who has reached the top 10 of a physically demanding field of competition.

Four days after the smoked pork contest in Iowa, the Ralston Recorder has an article about that competition. The article focuses on local Dennis Tribbie, who manages less than two pounds of pork.