I have wondered about the identity of the woman in the lower right corner of the Nathan’s Wall of Fame in Coney Island and assumed that it was Birgit Felden, the only female champion listed, who won with a total of 9.5 hot dogs. That assumption is bolstered by the claim in “Horsemen of the Esophagus” (p. 222) that Birgit Felden was a pretty 17 year old member of the West German judo team, since that description matches the picture. Googling “Birgit Felden” produces information that Birgit Felden, born in 1967, is now a management consultant with a doctorate who has authored three books along with a current photograph that validates that this Dr. Felden is the pictured Nathan’s competitor.

1984

2006

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The San Bernardino Sun has a flashback from 43 years today ago about a pancake contest for college students sponsored by the International House of Pancakes. Teams from over 50 colleges participated, including a team from Tokyo. Two San Bernardino Valley College students, Bruce James and Susan Moncrief, won the contest by eating 270 pancakes in 30 minutes. A breakdown of the amount of pancakes eaten by James and Moncrief is not provided.

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It is interesting that the IFOCE website makes a comparison between the weight of David Hasselhoff’s head and the 9 pound Barrick burger which will be eaten in a contest on Saturday since Gerta Hasselhoff is believed to be the first woman to win Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest sometime in the 1950’s according to this article on Kid Cary DeGrosa’s website. Perhaps Gerta is David’s aunt or grandmother.

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Two new articles in the Rockford Squire and the Advance about Balinda Gould’s feat of eating 43 chili dogs in 4 hours, which beat the 23 year old record set by Sharon Scholten/VanDuinen, are now available.

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(from competitiveeaters.com/news.htm) Balinda Gould, a 41 year old single mother who works part-time in at deli counter, broke Sharon Scholten’s 23 year old record of 42.5 chili dogs in 4 hours by a half a hot dog at the Rockford Corner Bar in Rockford, Michigan. Ms. Gould had apparently not eaten competitively before except for two attempts at the record in November in which she consumed 20 and 28 hot dogs.

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In October 2000, the Japanese website citydo did an article (translated by Google) about Takako Akasaka, the leading Japanese female competitive eater. Ms. Akasaka was the first woman to break 20 hot dogs when she finished 3rd in the 2000 Nathan’s Hot Dog contest. She is also the first eater, male or female, to eat two giant sandwiches from the Carnegie Deli in New York City.

The translated article is difficult to understand, but a few facts can be gleaned from it. Like Sonya Thomas, Takako started eating in her mid-30’s, has a day job and is single. She won some major contests outright, but I don’t think she ever beat Kobayashi. She ate 90 (presumably single egg) omelettes in a contest. The last sentence of the article reads “the queen who exceeds the Akasaka valuable child probably will not come.” The author apparently did not take the emergence of Sonya Thomas into account.

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Sharon Scholten, who ate 42.5 chili dogs in four hours at the Rockford Corner Bar in Rockford, Michigan in 1982 despite weighing only 110 pounds and eating a large Mexican lunch earlier, appeared at that establishment’s annual chili dog competition on July 23, but did not compete. No pictures or quotes of Ms. Scholten are present in the article. Over 5,000 eaters have attempted to break her record. The mark of 42.5 hot dogs is believed to be the most hot dogs consumed by a female in a single session, but Sonya Thomas appears on track to surpass that total in a future Nathan’s contest. If Sharon Scholten is considering a return to eating competitions, she can take inspiration in the fact that Carlene LeFevre is more than a decade older than she is.

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