Sonya Thomas - Training and Competition Notes

Training and Competition Notes

  • Thomas exercises up to two hours a day on an incline treadmill, and has maintained her weight since she started competing in 2003, down from 135 pounds when she worked as a typist in Korea. Her lowest weight has been 99 lb. at Wing Bowl XII in 2004.
  • She only eats one very large meal a day, which takes several hours for her to complete. A typical post-work meal for her would be three large orders of fries, a chicken Whopper, 20 chicken tenders, and two 32-ounce diet soft drinks.
  • She does not practice eating at maximum speed for more than a two-minute period.
  • Her favorite foods to eat in competitions are hard-boiled eggs, oysters and chicken wings.
  • She claims to have had remaining stomach capacity after all her contests, except after eating the nine pound Barrick burger, which took her 48 minutes to finish. She ate enough oysters to set the untimed record for oyster eating after the 2005 oyster competition was officially over.
  • She believes that the combined weight of the Barrick burger, bun and water she drank was probably 17 or 18 pounds, and that this is approximately her current gastronomic maximum.
  • She believes her best chance of beating Kobayashi would be in an 8–10 minute contest, in which superior technique could be a deciding factor. In a longer contest she feels that Kobayashi's advantage in stomach capacity (he can eat over 20 pounds) would be too much to overcome.
  • She had difficulty eating a hot dog in less than a minute when she first started training for her first contest, the 2003 Nathan's qualifier. After practicing, she was able to consume 18 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
  • She out-ate Randy Thomas, a pro football player noted for his appetite, consuming 6.5 pounds of shrimp in 10 minutes to his 1.5 pounds.

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