Skinnyboy recorded video of Pat Bertoletti’s and Rich LeFevre’s appearance on local television before the Las Vegas qualifier.

There is also a video of Rick “The Grizzly” Baird’s introduction.

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WorldPictureNetwork has a good gallery of last Thursday’s Nathan’s qualifier in Las Vegas. The captions are quite good in regards to names, but unfortunately the only result listed is Pat Bertoletti’s winning amount. Robin Leach, formerly of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”, was a commentator.

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The following names appear three or more times in the database of finisher of the 72 ounce steak from the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. The database is incomplete before 1991 and after early 2005.

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The Wing Bowl “outsiders” page at 610wip.com lists Wing Bowl 14 runner-up Rich LeFevre as the recipient of the final IFOCE Wing Bowl 15 slot.

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A video clip of the 2006 jalapeno contest at the Texas State Fair, won by Rich LeFevre, is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuT1P4sCphE Sonya Thomas, Pat Bertoletti and Erik Denmark also appear. Rich and Carlene LeFevre are interviewed. All the eaters wear different shirts due to the cancellation of GoldenPalace.net’s sponsorship, which is a surprising sight at an IFOCE contest.

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The slashfood food blog has an article about the efforts of the House of LeFevre to retain the posole title. The author has a different opinion on posole than his subjects do.

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The UCLA student newspaper has a column praising Rich LeFevre’s performance in the jalapeno contest which calls for a UCLA eating championship to start the school year.

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from IFOCE.com: Rich LeFevre won the jalapeno eating contest at the Texas State Fair, beating Sonya Thomas, Pat Bertoletti and Erik “the Red” Denmark. No other places were given. The Locust’s total was given as 247 peppers, more than Pat Bertoletti ate in a contest (177) almost twice as long in New Mexico.

updatedResults from SonyaTheBlackWidow.com & dfw.com:
1. Rich “The Locust” LeFevre: 247 Peppers
2. Sonya Thomas 239 (1st try at jalapenos)
3. Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti: 226
4. Erik “The Red” Denmark 108
? Allen Earl Jones 90

Rich LeFevre has won a Texas State Fair contest in the past 4 years. He won the corny dog contest 2003-5.

update #2 dfw.com has an article about the contest

update #3 dallasnews.com has an article and blog entry about the contest. The blog says that Sonya did not immediately accept the result and waited for a recount to be completed.

update #4 AP has an article which has received wide distribution

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(Thanks Jason Fagone) Today’s BBC World Service podcast has a segment about competitive eating with interviews with Fagone and the LeFevres.

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The Village Voice has an interview with the first couple of competitive eating.

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Liz has posted interviews with Rich LeFevre from before the Tempe qualifier and Erik “the Red” Denmark from after the contest.

Updated 11:48 pm Erik Denmark has a blog entry about the contest

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The East Valley Tribune has a writeup of yesterday’s Nathan’s qualifier at Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe. Top local Russell Blackwell is quoted.

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Andrew Lane has a blog entry about the Tempe Nathan’s qualifier he competed in today. He claims that the top four finishers of that event are:

1. Rich LeFevre 28 hot dogs & buns
2. Erik “the Red” Denmark 19 HDB
3. Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane 14 HDB (officially credited with 9 HDB)
4. Russell “The Black Hole” Blackwell (from Arizona) 13 HDB

updated 10:33 pm – removed “judging error” from Andrew Lane’s result
updated June 4 10:00 am – fixed Russell Blackwell’s name

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The Arizona Republic has a preview of tomorrow’s Nathan’s qualifier at the Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe.

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Thanks to supersizedmeals.com for making video captures of the video clip of the LeFevres at the Big Texan steakhouse.

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The clip from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not of the steak contest at the Big Texan steakhouse in which Rich LeFevre almost finished two 72 ounce steaks and Carlene sets a women’s record is available at:

http://eatfeats.com/LeFevresSteak.WMV

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The Lefevres’ attempts to eat the famous 72 ounce steak at the Big Texan steakhouse recorded by Ripley’s Believe it or Not in 2000 will be rerun on the SciFi Channel at 4 pm (eastern) Friday This might be the first appearance of competitive eating on national cable TV. The steak contest segment will probably occur at the end of the show near 5pm.

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Just as the Beatles’ performance on the Ed Sullivan Show created Beatlemania, Rich and Carlene Lefevre’s appearance on Ripley’s Believe It or Not in 2000 launched their career as the world’s greatest competitive eating couple. The episode (#109) was recorded at the Big Texan steakhouse in Amarillo, Texas and both LeFevres finished the restaurants famous 72 ounce steak (two women, Tammy Hooker and Annette Havard, also finished the steak) The SciFi channel will rerun this episode on May 12 at 4pm. The Amarillo Globe News has an article about the taping.

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Here are the top three finishers of yesterday’s huevos rancheros contest in South Padre Island, Texas courtesy of Erik “the Red” Denmark:

1st – Rich LeFevre 7.75 lbs. $1500
2nd – Crazy Legs Conti 4.5 lbs. $750
3rd – Erik the Red Denmark 3.5 lbs. $250

Joey Chestnut was scheduled to be at the event but the news just before the contest was that he missed his flight. This opened the door for LeFevre to run away with this competition, which he did. He left Crazy Legs and I behind at about the 4 minute mark where he got in a serious zone and plowed through the rather disguisting huevos rancheros at a frantic pace. Nice work Rich, that was impressive.

IFOCE.com lists Bobby Bodea as the winner of Friday’s amateur contest. No additional finishers are given.

I believe this victory gives Rich his fourth Texas win in four contests in that state. Rich’s previous wins:

2005 Oct 2 1st 35 burgers 8 min Krystal Square Off qualifier Dallas, TX
2004 Sep 26 1st 15.5 corny dogs 10 min World Corny Dog Eating Championship Dallas, TX
2004 Apr 3 1st 6.25 spamburgers 12 min Spam Burger Eating contest Austin, TX

And this does not include all the free steaks Rich and Carlene have won at the Big Texan steakhouse in Amarillo.

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This blog entry has a brief mention of Sonya Thomas’ Radar Magazine interview, but it has a long comment by someone who met Sonya at the 2004 Bacci Pizza contest in Chicago and also chauffeured the LeFevres during that event.

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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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The Boston Herald has a preview of Saturday’s Verizon VoiceWing Buffalo Wings finals consisting mainly of “bib sheets” for Joey Chestnut, “Badlands” Booker and “Crazy Legs” Conti. Conti’s appearance implies that Kevin Lipsitz has definitely vacated his spot for Conti since Conti finished in the sixth position in the DC qualifier and only the top five will advance.

Updated 11/12 12:48 pm – The Boston Globe has an interview with Rich LeFevre about the contest (No questions about Carlene’s status are asked)

The expected contestants for the contest are
Seattle (Everett, WA) qualifiers:
1. Joey Chestnut, 4.5 lb.
2. Eric “Badlands” Booker, 3.6 lb.
3. “Humble” Bob Shoudt 3.5 lb.
4. Patrick Bertoletti 2.93 lb.
5. Jason “The Erbivore” Erb 2.9 lb.

San Francisco qualifiers:
1. Rich LeFevre 4.92 lb won in double OT
2. Cookie Jarvis 4.92 lb lost in double OT
3.-5. ? (Does anyone know who else qualified)

DC (Bethesda, MD) qualifiers:
1. Sonya Thomas, 5.75 lb
2. Tim “Eater X” Janus, 4.0 lb
3. “Krazy” Kevin Lipsitz, 3.85 lb
4T. “Big” Brian Subich, 3.2 lb
4T. Chip Simpson, 3.2 lb
6. “Crazy Legs” Conti, 2.9 lb. (will appear due to Lipsitz missing)

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dallasnews.com has an article (registration required) about the Krystal Square Off qualifier at the State Fair of Texas. Rich LeFevre won the contest by eating 35 burgers. No other competitors or totals were listed. Hopefully Carlene recovered sufficiently from her hospital stay to make the trip with her husband.

Updated 10/3 11:33 PM top 3 (from ifoce.com)

1. Rich “The Locust” LeFevre 35 burgers
2. Kurtis Wright, 22 burgers
3. Levi Oliver, 21 burgers

The ifoce.com writeup mentions that Carlene was present. Hopefully she will complete her recovery soon and return to competition if she desires.

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The Des Moines Regsister has a very nice profile of Rich and Carlene LeFevre focusing on their appearance at the August 21 Smoked Pork Championships in Council Bluffs.

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Four days after the smoked pork contest in Iowa, the Ralston Recorder has an article about that competition. The article focuses on local Dennis Tribbie, who manages less than two pounds of pork.

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