The sidebar has been updated to list both money won in 2013 and over the past 365 days. (Full listings: 2013 | 365 days). According to the eatfeats database, Jamie McDonald has taken the lead in both tables after winning $20,000 in Wing Bowl 21. (If the list took the value of non-cash prizes into account, Dave “US Male” Goldstein would probably be third after winning a car valued at $38,220 in Wing Bowl 21.) A list of Joey Chestnut’s and Jamie McDonald’s contests over the past 12 months follows after the jump
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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 Oct 1 Blue Ribbon News has a contest report

update Sept 30 Lewisville Texan has an article
Ok Sure has videos
The Rake and Herald has a contest report

Results from MLE facebook Part 1 | Part 2

1 Joey Chestnut 102 tamales new record
2 Tim Janus 87
3 Adrian Morgan 68
4 Juan RoDriguez 60.5
5 Nate Biller 50.5
6 Yasir Salem 42
7 Brent Ricord 34
8 Gary Klucken 27
9 Cole Ellis 24
10 Timothy Morris 22
11 Alex Perez 21
12 Steve Harrell 17

Nate Biller appered on Fox 7 to promote the contest, which is expected to start at 1:15 central.

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update Sept 23-2 Andrew Kogutkiewicz has a video of the overtime

update Sept 23 Fox19 has a video

Robert Bolson has a gallery.

Results from Zinzinnati Oktoberfest in Cincinnati (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3)

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