Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Kwanza, Festivus and all other and all other holidays celebrated this time of year. In an infinitely less signficant Dec 25 anniversary, Sonya Thomas started her attempts at competitive eating on December 25, 2002 according to this San Francisco Chronicle interview from May by practicing for Nathan’s. She failed to eat one hot dog in less than a minute.

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I have updated the Wikipedia entry for Sonya Thomas to include the second half of 2005. Feel free to make any additional changes to it.

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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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As of 11:55 pm sonyatheblackwidow.com produces a generic page for register.com which promises that the website is coming soon. The domain name does not expire until September, so there is no apparent reason why the domain should not work.

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Radar Online has an interview with Sonya Thomas. She says that her worst contest experience was the event with overheated baked beans won by Dale Boone and that her dream remains owning her own Burger King franchise.

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Sonya Thomas can be found in armchair hack’s list of Seven Athletes that You Probably Don’t Know about but Should

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From IFOCE.com & sonyatheblackwidow.com & Bubba Yarbrough

Meatballs, Carmine’s at the Tropicana, Atlantic City, NJ
1. Sonya Thomas 10.3 lb
2. Joey Chestnut 8.3
3. Bob Shoudt 7.6
4. Tim Janus 7.0
5. Rich Lefevre 6.8
6. Chip Simpson 6.0
7.Bubba Yarbrough 5.3
8. Larry McNeil 5.1
9. Allen Goldstein 5.0
10. Ken from MD (bouncer) 4.0
11. Brian Seiken 3.3
12.Kevin Lipsitz N3.1
13. Adam Leffler 1.9 – retired afterward
14. Crazy Legs Conti DQ

12/7 12:42 am results updated from writeup on beautifulbrian.com – Brian’s gallery

If there was any debate on whether Sonya Thomas should be ranked #2 going into 2006, she removed it with a dominating performance which gave her a 2 contest winning streak to offset her 2 contest losing streak from November. She almost doubled her amount from the 6 pounds which won her the title in 2004. “Humble” Bob Shoudt continues his strong drive for a top 5 ranking.

Links to articles will be added as they come online. Brian Seiken will probably have a more complete list of finishers.

Updated 8:43 pm iirraa has already uploaded a 6 picture photo gallery of the contest.

Updated 12/4 10:55 pm Yahoo news has an AP photo of the contest

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Reuters has an article and video about Wednesday’s goldenpalace.com turkey eating contest in New York City which was won by Sonya Thomas. Sonya claims the wings were quite dry. Joey Chestnut came in second and Chip Simpson continued his impressive debut with a third place finish.

IFOCE.com has full results of the contest.

Updated 11/24 9:12 AM

The Pittsburg Post-Gazette has an article about the contest focusing on Quaker Staters Chip Simpson and Bob Shoudt.

An AP video of the contest is also available from the Virginia-Pilot (I am not sure if it is the same as the Reuters video.)

Updated 3:18 PM
AP article and photo available (from abcnews.com)

Updated 11/25 12:04 am
Channel 4 (UK) video clip available

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Sunday’s Washington Post had an excellent and rather long article about Sonya Thomas and her victory in the Bethesda Verizon VoiceWing qualifier at the end of last month. Registration or bugmenot.com is required.

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The turducken blog on foxnews.com has a quote from Sonya Thomas about the turducken contest she won in 2003.

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(From IFOCE.com) Sonya Thomas showed absolutely no effects from a two month contest hiatus at the DC (Bethesda, MD) Verizon Voicewing Buffalo Wing qualifier. Her total of 5.75 pounds beat runner up Tim Janus’ amount by a pound and 3 quarters. “Krazy” Kevin Lipsitz came in third. Sonya’s result is over a pound better than nemesis Joey Chestnut’s tally in Seattle from the start of October. Chip Simpson, who made his debut last week winning the Birmingham Krystal qualifier, competed along with “Crazy Legs” Conti, Don “Moses” Lerman, “Beautiful” Brian Seiken and Allan Goldstein. The top 5 finishers are eligible to compete in the finals to be held in Boston.

WTop radio has an article about the contest along with 4 pictures.

Added 11/1 12:59 am The DC Examiner has a contest writeup. The Examiner also did an interview with Sonya earlier in October.

Updated 10/31 9:25 AM “Beautiful” Brian Seiken, who competed, has a contest writeup on his website with near-complete results, pictures, and a reason why Sonya Thomas still has to worry about thrown food items despite being banned from the Wing Bowl.

Results from that article:

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.
7T. “Beautiful” Brian Seiken, 2lb.
7T. Alan Goldsten, 2lb.

Pat (from Moonachie) Philbin missed due to car problems, Don “Moses” Lerman struggled due to lack of a chair.

The top five finishers advance to the finals in Boston. Crazy Legs (who has adopted Tim Janus’ face painting) will also make the finals due to Kevin Lipsitz missing the finals due to a previous engagement.

Fixed 11/01 12:20 am made correction that Pat Philbin missed due to car trouble and not Brian Subich (Thanks Brian Subich)

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gazette.net has a preview of Saturday’s Verizon voicewing qualifier which will be held in Bethesda on Saturday containing brief interviews of Sonya Thomas and Tim Janus. Sonya self-confidence does not seem to be affected by her recent struggles with Joey Chestnut.

Bethesda is also the home of the National Institute of Mental Health. Determining which, if any, of the entrants should check into the institute after the contest will be left as an exercise for the reader.

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The site for the DC Verizon VoiceWing qualifier has been set at Union Jack’s British Pub in Bethesda, MD. Sonya Thomas will make her first contest appearance since Labor Day weekend. “Beautiful” Brian Seiken also expects that he, Pat Philbin, Don “Moses” Lerman, “Big” Brian Subich, “Krazy” Kevin Lipsitz, Tim”Eater X” Janus and Allen “Shredder” Goldstein will compete, giving the contest the most ranked IFOCE members since the US Open in July. Philbin will begin his campaign to win Wing Bowl 14.

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Congratulations to Sonya Thomas whose website experienced its second anniversary Monday. sonyatheblackwidow.com was launched on September 19, 2003, just about three months after Sonya’s first competition at the Nathan’s qualifier at the Molly Pitcher travel plaza in New Jersey.

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(From beautifulbrian.com bits & pieces) Chrissy, a Sonya Thomas fan from northern Virginia, has made a photo gallery of the Midway Slots Crabcake contest. Sonya is in several of the photographs, but there are also pictures of the top IFOCE eaters who participated in the contest. There are also a lot of generally positive comments about the pictures.

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Despite the setback at the Buffalo Wing Festival, Sonya Thomas has generally bested her previous year totals by 15%-25% in the summer of 2005

The other three results indicate that the 2005 Buffalo wing result is most likely an anomaly. (Brian Seiken claims that the wings were difficult to eat). Another year of gains at her current rate should put Sonya near Kobayashi’s level (assuming he does not improve) It will be interesting to see how the heated competition from Joey Chestnut affects Sonya’s improvement.

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Sonya Thomas broke her 2 event losing streak Monday at the Chattanooga Krystal burger qualifer, defeating Joey Chestnut in her fourth epic battle with the rookie in the past month. Her total of 57 hamburgers beat Joey Chestnut by one burger and bested her mark last year by 11 burgers. Surprisingly, Sonya does not mention the contest results on her website.

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Joey Chestnut wins the Waffle House contest in suburban Atlanta with 18.5 waffles beating Sonya Thomas by half a waffle. This is the first victory for Joey Chestnut over Sonya Thomas after several close defeats. Joey Chestnut gave half his $5,000 first place prize to hurricane Katrina relief. Patrick Bertoletti finished 3rd with 11 waffles. Sonya Thomas will have the chance to obtain one victory this extended holiday weekend when she competes in the Krystal burger qualifier in Chattanooga on Labor Day.

In other contests this weekend, Cookie Jarvis won the Buffalo Wing Festival “Buffet Bowl” contest and Rich LeFevre won the Colorado Grilled Cheese qualifier with 21 sandwiches. Ron Koch finished second with 19 sandwiches.

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In a shocking upset, Eric “Badlands” Booker won the Buffalo Wing contest at the Buffalo Wing Festival Saturday. His total of 137 wings beat Sonya Thomas’ total by ten wings. This is Sonya Thomas first loss to an eater besides Kobayashi since the Philadelphia Wing Bowl in early February, a period of about seven months. There is apparently no controversy about the Buffalo result which could not be claimed for the Wing Bowl. The upset is especially suprising given that Sonya almost ate twice as many lobsters as Booker in the Maine lobster contest in August. Sonya will have the chance to resume her non-Kobayashi winning streak when she competes in the Atlanta Waffle House contest on Sunday and the Chattanooga Krystal qualifier on Labor Day. Cookie Jarvis was 3rd and Bob Shoudt placed 4th.

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The Buffalo Wing Festival has the expected entrants list for Saturday’s Buffalo wing contest. Most of the top IFOCE members from the northeast will attend, but Joe LaRue is the only competitor listed from outside that region. I am not sure if that is the final list or if other eaters might show up. No information is available about Sunday’s buffet contest, but I assume that some gurgitators will hang around for that event. Brian Subich is back from a two week hiatus with additional information about the wing contest.

Sonya Thomas appears to have a quite stern challenge preserving her almost seven-month non-Kobayashi winning streak this holiday weekend when she competes in three contests in three different cities. First she will match up with Tim Janus coming off a record smashing performance in grilled cheese along with a resurgent Cookie Jarvis in Buffalo and then face a rested Joey Chestnut in waffles in Atlanta Sunday. On labor day in Chattanooga she will face off with Joey Chestnut again in the Krystal burger qualifier.

(Thanks Sonya for the website compliment on sonyatheblackwidow.com)

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In this episode of According to Jim, which reran Tuesday (and I missed), Jim loses a hot dog eating contest to a slender Asian female. This is the first appearance of a Sonya Thomas type in popular culture that I am aware of.

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From http://www.sonyatheblackwidow.com/:

Midway Slots Crab Cake-Eating Championship, 21 Aug 05, Harrington, DE.

1. Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, 40 Crab Cakes (to establish a World Standard)
2. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut: 38

Updated Aug 23 1:02 am

3. Tim “Eater X” Janus: 32

Joey Chestnut continues to establish himself as Sonya’s greatest American threat. Tim Janus originally planned to do the prizeless Saratoga Nathan’s qualifier; its cancellation resulted in him having a more lucrative weekend than planned.

Sonya will take a well deserved break next weekend before coming back with three contests Labor Day weekend.

I have a post containing links to articles about today’s contests tonight.

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The Star, from Malaysia, has an article about Sonya Thomas. The article is based on the San Francisco Chronicle interview from May. I am not sure if they obtained Sonya’s permission to reuse the pictures from that interview.

The Star also has an article about competitive eating in general noting the small size of the top eaters and mentioning the “Belt of Fat theory.”

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delawareonline.com has a preview of tomorrow’s crabcake contest. Sonya Thomas hopes to consume 50 3 ounce crabcakes in 12 minutes, which will contain 6,603 calories. Sonya says she will practice eating crabcakes before the contest, which I do not think she did with bratwurst. There is also some information about what Sonya experiences post-contest.

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The Washington Times has an interview with Sonya Thomas titled Consumed with Winning

Some interesting facts from that article:

• Sonya’s age is listed as 38, so she must have had a birthday recently
• She was inspired watching the 2002 Nathan’s contest. She must have seen highlights, because I don’t think the whole contest was broadcast before 2004.
• She says her doctor claims she will not suffer any health problems from eating contests as long as she does not enter too many competitions. I hope her recent increased contest frequency is below that threshhold.
• Her one big Burger King meal, if it is all she eats days she is working, is not that overwhelming if is divided by three.

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