update May 16 #2 Paul Barlow has a facebook gallery.

update May 16 Creative Loafing has a blog entry and gallery (via Larell Marie Mele comment)

Contest results from the eatingcontest twitter

Men
1) Tim “Gravy” Brown 28.75 hot dogs in 10 minutes, qualifies for Nathan’s finals for 5th year in a row
2) Larry “The Legend” McNeil 16, first IFOCE contest since joining WLOCE
3) Damien Boykin 11

Women
1) Larell Marie Mele 13 hot dogs
Grace Lee did not appear in any of the eatingcontest twitpics or in this yfrog picture of the entire field

The contest should start around 1 pm eastern.

Rich Shea says that “Pi Gal” will also compete, presumably Steve “Pi Guy” Martin’s wife or girlfriend.

PermalinkComments (18)

Sonya Thomas, Juliet Lee, Larell Marie Mele and Stephanie Torres are the current favorites to win four of the five prizes available in the Nathan’s womens division. Here are some possible candidates for the fifth female prizewinner who have done well in contests or challenges with a duration less than 15 minutes.

• Beth “Beef” Berry – won a 2010 Rock the Tot tater tot eating contest at a St. Louis area Bar Louie with a total of 3 (barlouie.com) or 3.5 (facebook) pounds of tater tots in 6 minutes.
• Meghan Corey – Set a house record by eating a 6 pound burrito in 15:35 at Tacos & Beer in 29Woodstock, GA
• Julie Dey – ate 11 or 12 hot dogs in the 2009 Minneapolis Nathan’s qualifier
• Floria Lee – won 6 of 7 women’s divisions of the Chef One Dumpling contest held in New York City. Her 2010 total of 38 dumplings would have come in third in the men’s division.
• Teresa Milgram – ate 15 hot dogs in 12 minutes in the 2010 West Coast Hot Dog Eating Championship
• Lisel Parillon – ate 33 tacos in under 13 minutes three times in a week at Drinker’s in Philadelphia
• “Cardboard Shell” – ate a 3 pound burger in 6 minutes in a contest held at Lobby’s in Tempe, AZ.
• Dena Sutton – won a bratwurst eating contest and received a trip to Puerto Rico as a prize also ate a five pound calzone in 16 minutes at Jimmy the Greek’s pub in Old Orchard Beach, Maine and was first woman to complete the Manimal challenge added 4/29
• unnamed woman – holds the record of 5:08 for a burrito challenge in Del Rio, TX added 4/29

PermalinkComments (56)

updated 9:58 am A New York Daily News article with quotes from Larell Marie Mele announces that the Nathan’s women’s purse (article was confusing and treated prize, purse and 1st place prize as synonyms) first place prize has been increased to $10,000. George Shea says the purse has been raised to $20,000. The women’s purse break down has been announced ($10,000 / $5,000 / $2,500 / $1,500 / $1,000), same as the men’s.

PermalinkComments (102)

A list of all women who have eaten more than ten hot dogs in a Nathan’s contest according to the eatfeats database and their personal bests follows:

PermalinkComments (5)

update Apr 28 Naader Reda has a video (via Stephanie Wu)

update Apr 26 #2 Naader Reda and Robin Leach have blog entries.

update Apr 26 Don Sturdy has a gallery

update Apr 25 Gaming Today has an article which claims that Adrian Morgan qualified for the finals.

6:47 Naader Reda has the top 3
1 Sean Gordon 30 hdbs
2 Adrian Morgan 27
3 Stephanie Torres 23 4th woman to break 20 hot dogs, best female debut of 10 minute qualifier era

6:44 It appears Rich LeFevre is competing according to this picture

6:38 The contest has started

6:27 Introductions have started

Some thoughts before the qualifier:

• Sonya Thomas Nathan’s debut was 18 hot dogs in 12 minutes with no previous eating contests. Juliet Lee ate 28 in 12 minutes after competing in the IFOCE for almost a year.
• Unresolved questions about the women’s division: Will Sonya Thomas receive a bye since she is the women’s record holder | Will there be a women’s wild card? (if two women exceed 10 hot dogs at one qualifier)
• The differential between the men’s and women’s Nathan’s prizes has been receiving some critical media attention: Time | Eater.com | Jezebel

PermalinkComments (33)

Don Sturdy mentions the possibility of Stephanie Torres opting out of the women’s division of the Nathan’s finals for the more lucrative men’s division. (It is not clear if the rules allow this.) Here are the average amounts eaten and corresponding prizes for the top 8 places in the past three years when the contest duration has been ten minutes.

If the women’s purse of $5000 is distributed in the same manner as the men’s purse, the following prizes will be awarded: $2500/$1250/$625/$375/$250.

The absences of Takeru Kobayashi and Sonya Thomas from this year’s men’s contest could lower the average amount eaten for some of the places, but it is probable that all male moneywinners will eat at least 33 hot dogs which is the average amount for seventh place in the previous three years.

If a rookie woman eats 31-36, that would be between the average amount of Sonya Thomas, 37 (34, 41, 36) and Juliet Lee 30 (29, 34, 27), which would be good for second place and a prize of $1250, which exceeds the men’s fifth place prize of $1000.

For the top woman to earn more money in the men’s contest she would have to come in at least second place, since the women’s first prize of $2,500 equals the men’s third place prize. The average top male performance excluding Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi over the past three years has been 47.33 (42 55 45), which exceeds Sonya Thomas’ personal best of 41 hot dogs by six.

A list of all the top 8 amounts for the past 3 years is available after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

PermalinkComments (23)

Richard Shea announces in a myFoxNY article that Nathan’s hot dog eating contest will have a women’s division in this year’s contest. No details about the division are provided (purse, qualification information, time of contest) (Shea is wrong in claiming that men have only won the Fourth of July contest; Birgit Felden won in 1984)

update A page on IFOCE.com has more information:

• The women’s contest purse will be $5000, a quarter of the $20000 awarded by previous Nathan’s finals
• The top woman in each qualifier will receive a berth in the women’s finals if she eats at least 10 hot dogs
• The women’s contest will take place before the men’s contest on July 4. (It is not mentioned if it will be televised on ESPN.)

update #2 George Shea has offered 1984 winner Birgit Felden a berth in the women’s finals if he can locate her. Here is her linkedin page.

update #3 The Atlantic has a blog entry about the difference between the women’s ($5000) and men’s ($20000) purse.

Assuming the women’s first place prize is at least $2,500, Sonya Thomas would probably win more money in the women’s division. She has won prizes of $1500, $1000 and $1000 in the four years that cash prizes have been awarded.

There were three women who broke the 10 HDB threshold needed to qualify last year (Sonya Thomas, Juliet Lee, Larell Marie Mele). It will be interesting to see the size the field for the women’s division.

Melody Andorfer ate 12 hot dogs in five minutes to win the 1972 Nathan’s Labor Day weekend contest, a much better performance than Birgit Felden’s.

PermalinkComments (68)