Eating / Drinking contest deaths, updated Oct 2012
Previous edition of list (last updated Dec 2009)
1983 North Carolina Marine dies in donut eating contest at the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station
1999 Chicago, a 12 year old school girl dies playing “Chubby Bunny” in an unsupervised classroom. The goal of “Chubby Bunny” is to say “Chubby Bunny” after stuffing one’s mouth with as many marshmallows as possible.
2002 Japan, school boy dies in cafeteria after attempting a stunt seen on a televised eating contest.
2004 Canada man dies after choking in chicken wing eating contest held at Regina bar.
2004 Japan, housewife dies in bread eating contest in Fukusaki, Hyogo Prefecture
2006 Canada, woman dies in “Chubby Bunny” contest held at Ontario fair
2007 Sacramento, woman dies of water intoxication after competing in a bladder endurance contest sponsored by a radio station.
2007 India, man (believed to be epileptic) dies from breathing complications in an idli eating contest
2008 Wales, man dies in unplanned post party cupcake contest to use up left over buffet food. Articles about the contest do not make it clear if the contest was a mouth-stuffing contest or a speed eating contest
2008 Taiwan graduate student dies after victory in a steamed bun eating contest
2008 India, engineer at Nokia Siemens of India chokes after making a pastry eating bet at a company party.
2009 Kaliningrad, Russia Boris Isaev chokes in pancake eating contest
2009 Hyderabad, India Bandu Joshi dies after stuffing 6 laddus into his mouth
2010 Phetchchaburi, Thailand 66 year old Hing Laichan dies after choking in noodle eating contest
2010 San Pedro, California 13 year old Noah Akers choked on a hot dog topped with whipped cream at a fundraiser for Haiti
2011 Tokmak, Ukraine 77 year old Ivan Mendel wins dumpling eating contest, then dies
2011 Timonium, Maryland (near death experience) Michael Solano lacks a pulse for four minutes after choking at a crab cake eating contest, then recovers after hospitalization
2012 Deerfield Beach, Florida Eddy Archbold dies after winning an insect eating contest held at a reptile store
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Very Sad said
October 9, 2012 @ 1:50 pm
I hate to say it, but this is the kind of thing that has always worried me with the current popularity of unsupervised amateur contests. Even some of the “pro” contests and challenges fall into this category. As you can see from the list, it’s not professionals that are suffering these deaths, it’s unfortunate amateurs that really don’t have a clue about what the real dangers are.
I really hope the big media coverage this is getting gets at least of few potential sponsors and amateur competitors the take a second thought about doing a contest in general and specifically a really weird one like this. Even though the early theory of death is “allergic reaction,” nobody should be eating large quantities of bugs and worms. Sorry, but that’s what it boils down to. All professionals know that even pretty benign food that you’ve trained with can potentially hurt you. This unfortunately brings home the fact that most amateurs don’t seem to understand – competitive eating is a very difficult endeavor that shouldn’t be attempted by just anyone. There’s a damn big difference between eating a pizza quickly and eating something that can react with your body very badly especially when you have no experience the assess the risk.
Anonymous said
October 9, 2012 @ 2:40 pm
Very sad says it all perfectly but likely that will not stop some people from doing what can only be considered risky behavior. I do think that sponsors and restaurants and the like though may take notice, at least I hope that they will. I hope that they will not think, well this was bugs etc., we serve pizza etc. because that is not the point.
Anonymous said
October 9, 2012 @ 2:42 pm
The 2002 incident in Japan pretty much took all competitive eating off the air in Japan and for some time. It actually never had the popularity it had had up until that incident. When did Kobayashi win his first contest at Nathans? It is possible that the unfortunate death (bun caught in throat) brought the end to wildly popular CE in Japan and it was transferred to the US via the Japanese competitors and especially Kobayashi.
ojrifkin said (Registered July 27, 2005)
October 9, 2012 @ 2:54 pm
Kobayashi won his first Nathan’s contest in 2001. The Food Battle Clubs held before the 2002 Japanese death awarded a million yen (about $100,000) to the winner. Kobayashi only won one out of the four Food Battle Clubs where he competed against Shirota.