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.

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From the steak finishers database at bigtexan.com

The database claims there have been 1686 successful attempts at the 72 ounce steak since 1991 with 23 having been performed by women. This gives females just 23/1686 = 1.36% of the finishes. It is really surprising that this fraction is that low given that Sonya Thomas and Kate Stelnick have accomplished feats that no male American competitive eaters have matched.

Carlene LeFevre has accounted for 9 of the 23 completions by women, almost 40% . Richard LeFevre is listed as having finished the steak 10 times, giving the LeFevres more than 1% (19/1686 = 1.12%) of the total completions. The LeFevres first bested the Big Texan’s challenge in 1985, so some of their finishes will not be in the database.

All but 4 of the female finishers have their weight listed. The heaviest listed weight is 160 pounds.

The LeFevres’ January 2000 attempt was filmed for Ripley’s Believe It or Not television show. From amarillo.com (Google cache)

On Jan. 22, six people attempted to consume the Big Texan’s signature stunt of a 72-ounce steak plus a baked potato, salad, roll and a shrimp cocktail. The contest was recorded for the television show Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

Richard LeFevre, a 135-pound resident of Henderson, Nev., nearly toppled a record held by a man four times his weight. LeFevre consumed the first steak and trimmings in 19 minutes, then asked for a second steak. He was unable to finish the second, but ate about 134 ounces of meat. …

LeFevre’s wife, Carlene, was next person to finish the feast, needing 32 minutes.

Two women from Houston, Tammy Hooker and Annette Havard, both won a radio contest to compete in Amarillo. Both women finished their meal in the allotted time. Havard, whose announced weight was 95 pounds, joked after finishing the meal that she was ready for dessert.

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