After only 2 of the first 6 or 7 hopeful competitors successfully completed their qualifying stunts (and one of those two was Rich LeFevre) it appears that the degree of difficulty of the qualifying stunts has been loosened. A recent successful stunt involved eating a pound of cookie dough in four minutes and another required eating two meatball subs in five minutes.

Beautiful Brian Seiken has an article about the degree of difficulty for Wing Bowl 14 qualifying stunts.

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Philly.com’s Wing Bowl page mentions that Rich “The Locust” LeFevre qualified for the Wing Bowl this morning by eating 12 cans of Vienna sausage in 5 minutes at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City. A video of Rich’s qualification is available on that page. I am not sure that the Wing Bowl organizers expected a skinny ex-accountant from Las Vegas to be the favorite (assuming Joey Chestnut does not attempt to qualify) when they barred previous competitors from entering.

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Qualifying for Wing Bowl 14 has begun with T Bone Tony’s attempt to eat 3 pounds of sirloin in 9 minutes 30 seconds. Philly.com’s Wing Bowl Page will have information and videos of all the qualifying attempts. Philadelphia area college students can qualify without performing a stunt by winning one of several contests to be held near Philadelphia area colleges. (Could this be Kate Stelnick’s opportunity to return to competitive eating?)

The Wing Bowl Rules explicitly ban AICE members. It is difficult to discern what the Wing Bowl gains from its association with IFOCE, as its most popular members are prevented from competing by the ban on previous entrants and all the publicity and qualifying for the event is handled by WIP.

Chip Simpson is probably the favorite if he decides to qualify. Brian Subich and Pat Philbin are other IFOCE members to watch. (This assumes that no IFOCE members from outside the northeast enter.)

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ESPN.com’s Page 2 has a list of its top five articles for 2004-2005 which includes an article on the 2005 Wing Bowl, “The Worst Event Ever” by Jim Caple.

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Philly.com has an article describing the complaint Arnie “Chowhound” Chapman lodged with the Federal Communications Commission. Chapman claims that his being prevented from competing in the 2005 Wing Bowl after successfully completing his qualifying stunt violates the FCC statute that on-air contests must have fair and consistent rules. A video clip of the Chowhound’s stunt in which he ate 28 clementines is available.

In other Wing Bowl news, the Philadelphia City Paper claims that the 2005 Wing Bowl was probably fixed so that Bill “El Wingador” Simmons could beat Sonya Thomas.

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Several sellers have put Wing Bowl tickets up for sale on ebay. They are asking, and generally getting a good deal more than the $5 face value.

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WIP 610 has announced that the Wing Bowl has sold out in a little more than 24 hours despite the lack of previous competitors.

Update 10/26 11:26 pm philly.com has more information about Wing Bowl ticket sales (go to the bottom of the page). 18,000 tickets were sold, which is probably about the capacity for basketball or hockey.

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In this forum thread for the Opie and Anthony show, Pat (from Moonachie, NJ) Philbin is encouraged by his fans to participate in the Wing Bowl. One fan is apparently not upset about the lack of previous competitors in Wing Bowl 14, for he plans to camp out for tickets starting 24 hours before they go on sale.

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Speedeat.com mentions that the next Wing Bowl will be closed to all previous competitors and have a $5 admission charge. 610 WIP’s Wing Bowl page makes this information official. Tickets will go on sale starting Sunday. The starting time will remain 6am the Friday before the Super Bowl. All admission fees are allocated to charity, but if the net result of the restrictions is a victory for Joey Chestnut or Rich LeFevre, they might want to use some of those funds for additional security.

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• Bahrain Ice Cream Eating Contest It is surprising an Islamic country would not only have an adult women’s division, but match up the women’s and men’s winners to determine the overall champion
• Trentonian column mentioning the NJ Pizza contest
• Humble Bob’s review of the “Swallow Your Pride” competitive eating documentary. The documentary features both IFOCE and AICE eaters and focuses on the Wing Bowl, especially the rivalry between Philly and non-Philly competitors. Eaters from the Philadelphia suburbs are apparently treated as outsiders, so Kate Stelnick might experience some hostility if she ever participates in it.
• In more movie news, boxofficeprophets.com (go to the end of the page) mentions the upcoming competitive eating film. I think the film will be based on El Wingador, but I believe that the Sonya Thomas biography from her first contest to the 2004 Wing Bowl would make a better story (if a movie studio did not find it too implausible.)

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Jason Fagone, who has an upcoming book titled Insatiable Appetites: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream has a blog at http://eating.typepad.com/ The blog is updated about once a month. The book is not scheduled to be published until 2006.

Fagone has written a preview of the 2005 Wing Bowl containing a profile of Bill “El Wingador” Simmons available at
http://www.phillymag.com/ArticleDisplay.php?id=485 El Wingador does not have very nice things to say about Sonya Thomas.

A few interesting notes from the blog:

• The Japanese competitive eating scene has all but disappeared since a school boy died imitating the eaters in 2002. Claims that Kobayashi earns a six-figure amount annually from eating in Japanese contests are almost certainly untrue.
• Japanese eaters (besided Kobayashi) would like to compete in US events other than Nathan’s .
• The 2005 Wing Bowl should have gone into a second overtime at a minimum and Sonya Thomas might have won outright in the first overtime period.

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In FAQ #29 on her home page, Sonya claims that the Wing Bowl was an event she “thoroughly enjoys” participating in and that the fun she has at a contest is proportional to the crowd size. This would be understandable if every member in a large crowd was on tolerable behavior but at the 2005 Wing Bowl they most certainly were not:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/050205
http://www.mrfootball.com/forums/showthread.php?s=45493eaf14c63f8167536cf01cead604&t=111080&page=1&pp=15

It is possible she was focused enough to tune out verbal insults from the crowd, but it seems that thrown objects would be impossible to ignore.

It would be interesting to see how the Wing Bowl crowd would treat South Jersey girl Kate Stelnick if she ever participates in it.

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Photo album from May 26 SF Chronicle about Sonya Thomas
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2005/05/26/eat.DTL&o=4

Remaining pictures are by firmrep357

Pictures from before 2005 Wing Bowl
http://community.webshots.com/album/266831340hhDvEn/1
http://community.webshots.com/album/266831340hhDvEn/2

Pictures from 2004 Nathan’s Contest (has some pictures of Carlene LeFevre)
pictures show the size difference between Sonya and Badlands Booker
http://community.webshots.com/album/161294535eoWBBP
http://community.webshots.com/album/161294535eoWBBP/1
http://community.webshots.com/album/161294535eoWBBP/2

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