I have updated the list of competitive eating / drinking fatalities with 2015-17 passings. I do not claim this a full roster, just incidents which have been publicized on English language newspapers and websites.

Previous edition of list (last updated Nov 2014)

1906 Normburg, IL Cheese contest results in fatality and put two others in critical condition
1983 North Carolina Marine dies in donut eating contest at the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station
1999 Chicago, a 12 year old school girl dies playing “Chubby Bunny” in an unsupervised classroom. The goal of “Chubby Bunny” is to say “Chubby Bunny” after stuffing one’s mouth with as many marshmallows as possible.
2002 Japan, school boy dies in cafeteria after attempting a stunt seen on a televised eating contest.
2004 Canada man dies after choking in chicken wing eating contest held at Regina bar.
2004 Japan, housewife dies in bread eating contest in Fukusaki, Hyogo Prefecture
2006 Canada, woman dies in “Chubby Bunny” contest held at Ontario fair
2007 Sacramento, woman dies of water intoxication after competing in a bladder endurance contest sponsored by a radio station.
2007 India, man (believed to be epileptic) dies from breathing complications in an idli eating contest
2008 Wales, man dies in unplanned post party cupcake contest to use up left over buffet food. Articles about the contest do not make it clear if the contest was a mouth-stuffing contest or a speed eating contest
2008 Taiwan graduate student dies after victory in a steamed bun eating contest
2008 India, engineer at Nokia Siemens of India chokes after making a pastry eating bet at a company party.
2009 Kaliningrad, Russia Boris Isaev chokes in pancake eating contest
2009 Hyderabad, India Bandu Joshi dies after stuffing 6 laddus into his mouth
2010 Phetchchaburi, Thailand 66 year old Hing Laichan dies after choking in noodle eating contest
2010 San Pedro, California 13 year old Noah Akers choked on a hot dog topped with whipped cream at a fundraiser for Haiti
2011 Tokmak, Ukraine 77 year old Ivan Mendel wins dumpling eating contest, then dies
2011 Timonium, Maryland (near death experience) Michael Solano lacks a pulse for four minutes after choking at a crab cake eating contest, then recovers after hospitalization
2012 Deerfield Beach, Florida Eddy Archbold dies after winning an insect eating contest held at a reptile store
2012 Surrey, BC Samaljit Aulakh experiences brain damage after choking in a gulab jamun eating contest. As of July 2013, he remained hospitalized.
2012 Tunisia Dau Fatnassi dies after eating 28 raw eggs to win a bet
2013 India, 13 year old schoolboy Bharat Sharma chokes to death after attempting to swallow two idlis
2013 England Sharon Dixon passes away after choking on boiled eggs at a pub’s eating contest
2013 Australia 64 year old Bruce Holland experiences a fatal heart attack while participating in a tavern’s chilli pie eating contest
2013 Spain Joaquín Alcaraz Gracia passes away after winning a beer drinking contest
2013 Romania unnamed 60 year old chokes to death in a sausage eating contest.
2014 England Gary Mark Sims choked after attempting to swallow three eggs at a time at a pub in Berkeley, England
2014 Custer, SD Walter Eagle Tail chokes to death in a July 3 hot dog eating contest
2014 Nellukuthupara, India Kandamuthan chokes in an idli eating contest
2014 Staryl, Ukraine Lyana Koroleva experiences a heart attack while waiting to receive a prize for winning a vareniki (dumpling) eating contest
2015 Uganda 30 year old man passes away after eating 8 mandazzis (doughnuts). He did not drink any water
2016 Indonesia Jakarta resident chokes on piece of chicken trying to qualify for a Kentucky Fried Chicken of Indonesia contest
2016 Santa Fe, NM Debra Harbeck chokes after competing in corn dog eating contest where participants simulated performing oral sex. She had had a blood alcohol content between 0.13 and 0.14 percent
2016 Kenya Eating contest held at a funeral results in blocked windpipe
2016 Japan 28 year old male chokes on rice ball
2017 South Korea Freshman orientation eating contest results in airway obstruction for female student
2017 Fairfield, CT Sacred Heart University student Caitlin Nelson chokes during Greek Week pancake eating contest, passes away three days later
2017 Denver Travis Maloof chokes while attempting the “Tex Ass” challenge at Voodoo Doughnut

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update April 10 The New York Post has an article about the funeral | Video about funeral

update April 6 A funeral mass will be held Saturday in Westfield, NJ. The official autopsy lists the cause of death as accidental asphyxia.

update April 5 InsideEdition has an interview with Fairfield Police Sgt. Mike Paris who says “Her mouth was compacted with pancakes, almost to her teeth.” (video)

The Fairfield Daily Voice reports that a college student who was hospitalizated aftter choking in a pancake eating contest at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT on Thursday passed away. The University held a vigil yesterday in her memory. update CTPost and TapInto have articles giving the name of the deceased as Caitlin Nelson from Clark, NJ. Her father, James Nelson, was a Port Authority police officer who passed away when the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001. update #2 The New York Post has an article reporting that Caitlin Nelson’s allergies were not a factor in the incident.

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Here is a list of states sorted by the number of Nathan’s qualifiers they have held since July 5, 2002 according to the eatfeats database. A list of all qualifiers follows. I think the NYNY Casino in Las Vegas is the only site to have held a qualifier all 15 years.

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Here is the number of Nathan’s qualifiers held during a circuit (July 5-July 3) for each finals since 2003 as best as I can figure out. The 19 qualifiers scheduled for 2016-17 are the most since 2007-2008. This means that at least 44 people will qualify for the 2017 finals assuming Matt Stonie and Sonya Thomas receive byes (4 previous champions, 38 qualifier winners and 2 wild cards).

A numbered list of all the qualifiers in the database since July 5, 2002 follows if anyone wants to count. (The second column is the year of the finals for the qualifier)
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