Eating Competition Tickets

On an individual level, competitive eating probably predates the Common Era. It wasn’t legitimized, however, until Norse mythology was put on paper in the 13th century. The first fabled contest in competitive eating, as the story goes, involved the Norse deity Loki losing to his servant after the servant actually ate his plate. Modern competitive eating, however, officially began in 1916 with the first Fourth of July hot-dog eating contest held by Nathan’s Famous. Since its debut on Coney Island, hot dog-eating contests grew to include pasta, pie, lobsters, whole chickens, and many other foods. Possibly the most amusing spectacle in the sport, a cold-war era eating contest pitted an American weightlifter against a Soviet weightlifter in 1958. Both contestants ate eight lobsters and six squab, eventually declaring a tie.

Today, competitive eaters eat hot dogs, crab cakes, and more as they vie to eat the most food in the allotted time, which is usually between 8 and 15 minutes. Several organizations have been established to sponsor and oversee the many professional eating contests that now take place across the globe. The International Federation of Competitive Eating or IFOCE is the most prevalent eating contest host today, hosting dozens of competitions every year since the early 90s. Second in size is AICE or the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters. They differ from the IFOCE with their rules: “independent” eaters, basically the equivalent of free agents, are allowed in their contests. Both of these organizations comprise Major League Eating, the umbrella federation for the sport.

Competitive eating has seen some serious feats to date. Some of the records that stand currently are 11 pounds of cheesecake in 9 minutes, 35 brats in 10 minutes, 65 eggs in 6 minutes, and 53.5 hot dogs in 12 minutes.