Sonya Thomas

About Sonya Thomas

Sonya Thomas also known by her nickname The Black Widow, and "The Leader of the Four Horsemen of the Esophagus", is a top-ranked Korean-born American competitive eater from Alexandria, Virginia.Thomas joined the International Federation of Competitive Eating in 2003 and quickly rose to the top of the ranks, beating competitive eaters such as Ed "Cookie" Jarvis and Eric Booker. The 98-pound Thomas is the number four competitive eater in the United States. Her nickname "The Black Widow" refers to her ability to regularly defeat men four to five times her size.While the size of her stomach is only slightly larger than normal, her skinny build is perhaps her biggest advantage, allowing her stomach to expand more readily since it is not surrounded by the ring of fat common in other heavy eaters.She holds records in over 25 eating competitions,and in December 2008, she set the world record for fruit-cake eaten in 10 minutes.

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.

Sonya Thomas Achievements

Asparagus

5.75 pounds of tempura deep fried asparagus spears in 10 minutes

Cheesecakes

11 pounds of Downtown Atlantic cheesecake in 9 minutes

Chicken nuggets

80 chicken nuggets in 5 minutes

Chicken wings

183 chicken wings in 12 minutes (2011 record)

Chili

1.125 Gallons of Chili in 6 minutes

Crabcakes

46 three ounce crabcakes in 10 minutes

Eggs

65 hard boiled eggs in 6 minutes and 40 seconds

Fruitcakes

4 pounds, 141/4 ounces of Wegman's Fruitcake in 10 minutes

Gyoza

206 gyoza in 10 minutes

Hamburgers

7 burgers (3/4 pound "Thickburgers") in 10 minutes

Jambalaya

9 pounds of crawfish jambalaya in 10 minutes

Lobster

44 lobsters totaling 11.3 pounds of lobster meat in 12 minutes

MoonPies

38 Moonpies in 8 minutes

Oysters

46 dozen Acme Oysters in 10 minutes(2005)

29 dozen Acme Oysters in 8 minutes (2009)-Louisiana oyster season produced much larger oysters in 2009 explaining the slower pace -reclaimed the World Oyster Eating title

Pizza

6 extra large Bocce pizza slices in 15 minutes

Pulled pork

23 pulled pork sandwiches in 10 minutes

Tacos

43 soft tacos in 11 minutes

Tater tots

250 tater tots in 5 minutes

Turducken

73/4 pounds Turducken.com Thanksgiving Dinner in 12 minute