update May 1 The Palm Beach Post has a contest video

update The Palm Beach Post has a contest report

Top 4 according to Jon Bello’s Instagram

1) Bob Shoudt 35 ears
2) Crazy Legs Conti 34
3) Erik Denmark 33
4) Jon Bello 29

According to the festival facebook, Bob Shoudt has won the contest Crazy Legs Conti was the runner-up

The official start time is 3pm, but the contest has already started according to David Stone.

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update March 26 Jason Beinstein has a video. A caption says David Soberman ate 13 hot dogs.

Rake & Herald, Grub Street and Amusing the Zillion have contest reports

The qualifier was mentioned (without any footage) on Good Morning America

update March 24 Brian Seiken has posted some videos

update The winners

“Notorious” Bob Shoudt 36 hot dogs
Larell Marie Mele 17

update #2 Other results
“Wild” Bill Myers 13
Andrew Kossuth 12.5
“Beautiful” Brian Seiken 11 (thinks he ate 13)

Crazy Legs Conti was on site

update #3 Brooklyn Gossip has a gallery

The current temperature is 45F (Is this the coldest outside contest in IFOCE/MLE history?)

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update Nov 1 NotoriousBob.net has a quote that did not appear in the article

update Oct 31 Some observations and links about the article follow:

• Ronson asserts that the 1916 origin story for Nathan’s hot dog eating contest is “(almost certainly) untrue”, which Mortimer Matz, Nathan’s promoter of the 1970s and 80s confirmed in a 2010 NY Times interview. The claim that the first contest took place on July 4, 1972 is incorrect; a contest was held on Memorial Day weekend of that year and a competition took place in 1967 to honor the centennial of the hot dog.
• 2009 is listed as the year of Takeru Kobayashi’s final IFOCE sanctioned contest. He competed against Joey Chestnut in a contest in Singapore in May 2010.
• Emcee Dave Keating says that the cupcakes used in the shortened cupcake contest were lighter than those used in 2011, which explains why 7th place finishers Maria “Edible” and Michelle “Cardboard Shell” Lesco ate more in 6 minutes (48) than the previous year’s winner Tim Janus ate in 8 minutes (42). (Video of the contest).

If you need something to read due to Hurricane Sandy related disruptions, Jon Ronson’s article about competitive eating for the November 2012 issue of GQ is now available online. The article includes mini profiles of Joey Chestnut, Pat Bertoletti, Matt Stonie, Bob Shoudt and Maria “Edible” and contains reports from the Nathan’s finals, TooJay’s corned beef sandwich eating contest, and a behind the scenes look at the shortened cupcake contest held at the Isle of Capri casino in Waterloo, Iowa where Bob Shoudt offered these thoughts on cheating:

“I’ve seen everything,” he says. “People throwing hot dogs under the table. People making the biggest messes you can imagine.”

My eyes widen. “So there’s such a mess under the table it’s impossible to determine what counts as an eaten thing?” I ask.

“Oh, there’s techniques,” says Bob. “People suddenly get happy feet.” He mimes an eater dropping an item of food and then covertly stamping it into the ground. I’m appalled. Cheating makes everything pointless. And then Bob confesses that—if need be—he will be one of those cheaters. When his wife is in the crowd, they use pre-arranged signals. “If the eaters are dropping stuff like crazy, she’ll give a meaningless cheer. I’ll understand. Suddenly the food gets very slippery for me.”

He gives me a look that says: Don’t judge me until you’ve walked in my shoes. Leave the Gandhi-like behavior to the fools who don’t mind losing to the cheaters.

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update May 2 DallasObserver.com has a slideshow (starting at picture #9)

update May 1 Someone claiming to be Gary Klucken has posted the following on the MLE facebook

As a competitor in mesquite, texas the true results were: Eric;B.O.B.;Nasty Nate;Gary K.;Bam Bam.

update Apr 29 Erik Denmark posted a picture of the score sheet which listed weights. Apparently the individual trays were not weighed before the contest. The original weight was assumed to be 20 multiplied by the average weight of a wing.

update SCNTX.com has an article (via HootersTexas)

The top 3 in today’s Hooters qualfier in Mesquite, TX:
1) Bob Shoudt 120 wings
2) Erik Denmark 117 wings
3) Nate Biller 100 wings. (It is rather strange that weights are not being announced for a contest that is based on mass consumed and not wing count.)

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update Dec 14 SHRHollywood has a video

update Dec 12 Jim The Candle Man has videos of the contest and LA Beast’s introduction and BrandoFoto has a gallery.

update Results
1) “Notorious” Bob Shoudt 52, breaks Joey Chestnut’s 2009 record of 50
2) Adrian Morgan 48
3) Kevin “LA Beast” 31
4T) Yasir Salem 24
4T) Mike Katz 24
6) Andrew Kogutkiewicz 21
7T) Sean “Wrecking Ball” Brockert 15
7T) Bruce Ollis 15
9) Michael Parris
DQ) Steve Piccolo

The contest is expected to start around 5 or 6 pm eastern and Bob Shoudt, Adrian Morgan, Sean Brockert, Yasir Salem, Andrew Kogutkiewicz, Bruce Ollis and Kevin “LA Beast” are expected to compete. Steven Piccolo will attempt to follow up on his 3rd place finish in last months pickle contest.

This will be the fourth IFOCE contest in Broward or Palm Beach county in 2011 (Sweet Corn Fiesta, TooJay’s, Pompano Park Pickles and Martorano’s meatballs)

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update Oct 25 DwyerMichaels has a contest video

update Oct 23 AdrenalKrome has a video of Jessie Aguilar at the contest

The MLE facebook has full results for today’s Maid-Rite Sandwich Eating Championship at Isle Casino in Bettendorf, Iowa:
1) Bob Shoudt 20 sandwiches in 10 minutes
2) Aaron Osthoff w/15
3T) Ben Taylor 12
3T) Mark Williams 12
5) James Roberson 10
6T) Matt Raible 8
6T) Andrew Kogutkiewicz 8,
8T) Andrew McCormick 7
8T) Kelson Weig 7
10) Jess Aguiliar 5
11 Michael Sorenson 3

QCTimes has an article about the contest

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(Bumped & Modified originally posted June 27)

The following people won a slot in the 2010 Nathan’s finals by winning a qualifier. The second column is the number of hot dogs eaten in the qualifier (click on the names to see their contest history)

Allen Goldstein received a slot by leading the wild card standings. Here are the wild card standings according to results in the eatfeats datbase (qualifier winners not listed):

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