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 Apr 20 Cardboard Shell has uploaded a video of the entire contest. Tim Brown competes throughout the contest and does not appear to have been disqualified, it is not clear why no result was announced for him.

update Apr 16 WCFCourier has an article saying #2-#5 all received $1K making the payouts ($1500/$1000/$1000/$1000/$1000). The original payouts were $1500/$1250/$1000/$750/$500. If runner-ups Tim Janus & Aaron Osthoff split the original 2nd and 3rd place amounts after tying, they would have received $1125 each.

update Apr 15 WCFCourier has a contest video. Tim “Gravy” Brown competed, but did not have a result announced. Did he DQ?

7:14 KGAN has a short article about the celebrity contest.

5:39 Kevin “LA Beast” has posted a picture of the cupcakes used in the contest.

4:56 8 people beat Tim Janus’ winning total of 42 last year including (Kevin “LA Beast” Maria “Edible” (48) and “Cardboard Shell” (48)) despite the contest terminating after about 6 minutes due to a lack of cupcakes. This might be the first time an IFOCE record has almost been doubled since 2001 Nathan’s. Aaron Osthoff almost doubled his 2011 amount of 35.5 cupcakes. If the contest was the planned 8 minutes, Bertoletti probably would have doubled the 2011 winning total Tim Brown was reportedly present, but his result was not announced.

4:37 Full Results Part 1 | Part 2 (without LA Beast who says he ate 54)

3:51 Lindsey Newcomb is tweeting the top 5 as they are announced
1) Pat Bertoletti 76 72 contest truncated to about 6 minutes due to lack of cupcakes
2T) Tim Janus 66
2T) Aaron Osthoff 66
4) Eric “Badlands” Booker 60
5) “Notorious” Bob Shoudt 56

3:50 The contest is over and terminated early due to running out of cupcakes.

3:44 The contest has started

KWWL has an article and video about Tim “Eater X” Janus

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update Apr 25 KWWL has a video about the contest (via Val Bromann) and an article about the media contest.

update Val Bromann has uploaded a gallery

1) Tim Janus 42 cupcakes
2) Tim Brown 37
3) Aaron Osthoff 35.5
4) Jacob “Great Lake” 29
5T) Gary Klucken
5T) Ben Taylor
? Val Bromann 9

3:50 Results are being announced.

3:40 The contest is over.

3:30 Some of the field: Tim Janus, Tim Brown, Ben Taylor, Aaron Osthoff, Gary Klucken Val Bromann. This will be Janus’ first contest since the November 6 Maid-Rite sandwich contest.

3:22 The casino’s twitter is announcing each introduction. Gary Klucken, Aaron Osthoff and Val Bromann have been introduced.

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