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Sonya Thomas (born Lee Sun-kyung on July 26, 1967), also known by her nickname The Black Widow, and "The Leader of the Four Horsemen of the Esophagus", is a South Korean-born American competitive eater from Alexandria, Virginia.[1] Thomas joined the International Federation of Competitive Eating in 2003 and quickly rose to the top of the ranks, beating competitive eaters such as Eric Booker.
Her nickname "The Black Widow" refers to her ability to regularly defeat men four to five times her size.[2] 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.[3] She holds records in over 25 eating competitions,[4] and in December 2008, she set the world record for fruit-cake eaten in 10 minutes.
On July 4, 2005, she ate 37 hot dogs in 12 minutes at Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, setting a then-record for American competitors (which was also the female record). On August 8, 2005, she consumed 35 bratwursts in 10 minutes, beating the previous 10-minute record of 19.5 bratwursts, although her record was beaten in 2006 by Takeru Kobayashi.
On July 4, 2011, Thomas became the first champion of Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest for Women. Eating 40 hot dogs in 10 minutes, Thomas earned the inaugural pink Pepto Bismol Belt and won $10,000.[5] She defended and held on to that title the following year eating 46 hot dogs. On July 4, 2013, she again defended her title by eating 363⁄4 hot dogs, just beating out Juliet Lee who ate 36 hot dogs.
Thomas's first major victory that put her on the competitive eating map was in the 2004 Wing Bowl, where she became the first woman to win a Wing Bowl.[6] Her tally of 32 hot dogs in the 2004 Nathan's Hot Dog contest was the most ever eaten by a male or female American competitor at the time. The only eaters besides Kobayashi to defeat Thomas between the 2004 and 2005 Nathan's contests were Bill "El Wingador" Simmons in the 2005 Wing Bowl, and Dale Boone, who cooled overheated baked beans in order to win an eating contest.
On July 4, 2011, Thomas became the first champion of Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest for Women. Eating 40 hot dogs in 10 minutes, Thomas earned the inaugural Pink Belt and won $10,000.[5]
Thomas had won 1st place in the National Buffalo Wing Festival US chicken wing eating championship five-years straight from 2007 to 2011. On September 4, 2011, she attained the United States Chicken Wing Eating Championship in Buffalo, New York, by eating 183 chicken wings in 12 minutes. On September 2, 2012 Joey Chestnut consumed 191 wings, weighing 7.61 pounds (3.45 kg) in 12 minutes to take competitive-eating trophy from the five-year champion Sonya Thomas.[7]
When Thomas undertook a challenging schedule of three contests in three cities on Labor Day weekend 2005, she had not lost a contest to anyone besides Kobayashi since the Wing Bowl in early February. Several last-minute victories foreshadowed that her streak would not last forever. At the Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo, NY, Ms. Thomas lost to Eric "Badlands" Booker in a chicken wing contest and then lost a waffle eating contest in Atlanta the next day to the fast-rising rookie Joey Chestnut, giving her a two event losing streak to replace her winning streak. Thomas' waffle defeat was avenged on Labor Day, however, when she out-ate Chestnut in the Chattanooga, TN Krystal Square Off qualifier. Thomas ate 57 Krystal Burgers to Chestnut's 56.
Before the GoldenPalace.com turkey eating contest in New York City Thanksgiving Eve, Thomas had gone three months without winning a non-qualifying contest, although she did have two impressive victories in qualifiers during that span. It appeared that Chestnut would soon claim the title of the leading American eater from Thomas. The civil engineering student from San Jose State had defeated Thomas in three of their last four match-ups and was the first eater to lead Kobayashi for the majority of a contest at the Krystal Square Off in Chattanooga the previous week. Although Thomas came in third, the silver lining was her domination of Kobayashi on a pound for pound basis: Thomas 56 burgers / 100 lb. = 0.56, Kobayashi 67 burgers / 170 lb. = 0.39.
At the turkey contest, Thomas was able to dramatically reverse her recent slump and defeat Chestnut without last second heroics, which she had not been able to do since Nathan's hot dog contest on July 4. Thomas' momentum continued the following week at a meatball contest in Atlantic City. Her total of 10 pounds 3 ounces (4.6 kg) beat Chestnut by two pounds (0.91 kg) and almost doubled her total from the previous year's meatball contest. Thomas' continued improvement, along with Chestnut's rapid ascent, gave Kobayashi more to worry about in 2006 than at any previous time in his dominant career.
On August 13, 2006, Thomas won her Asian debut competition in Hong Kong while setting her 28th eating record, by consuming 17 Chinese-style lotus seed buns in 12 minutes.
She was featured in a MasterCard Paypass commercial. By accident, she meets Takeru Kobayashi, a male competitor, in a convenience store. Their eyes flash, and they begin a hot dog eating duel, which they pay for using the Paypass card.[8]
In 2005, Thomas earned more than $50,000 in prize money and made extensive media appearances.[9]
| Year of Contest | Hot Dogs | Placing |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 Qualifier | 18 | held at Molly Pitcher Rest Area, New Jersey |
| 2003 Contest | 25 | 5th place, & female record |
| 2004 Qualifier | 26.5 | held at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| 2004 Contest | 32 | 3rd place, female record, & U.S. record |
| 2005 Qualifier | 32 | tied female & US record; held at Norfolk, Virginia |
| 2005 Contest | 37 | 2nd place, US record, & female record |
| 2006 Contest | 37 | 3rd place, tied female record |
| 2007 Contest | 39* | 5th place, female record |
| 2008 Contest | 34 | 6th place[17] |
| 2009 Contest | 41 | 6th place[18] |
| 2010 Contest | 36 | 4th place[19] |
| Women's Competition. Beginning in 2011, Nathan's Famous was split into Men's and Women's Competitions. | ||
| 2011 Contest | 40 | 1st place, contest & U.S. record[20] |
| 2012 Contest | 45 | 1st place, contest & U.S. record[21] |
| 2013 Contest | 363⁄4 | 1st place[22] |
| 2014 Contest | 273⁄4 | 2nd place[23] |
| 2015 Contest | 31 | 2nd place[24] |
| 2016 Contest | 35 | 2nd place[25] |
| 2017 Contest | 30 | 3rd place[26] |
| Year of Contest | Buffalo wings | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 134 | 12 Minutes |
| 2004 | 161 | 12 Minutes |
| 2007 | 173 | 12 Minutes |
| 2008 | 165 | 12 Minutes |
| 2009 | 169 | 12 Minutes |
| 2010 | 181[27] | 12 Minutes |
| 2011 | 183 | 12 Minutes |
By 2023, she was described as "semi-retired", working as a manager at a Burger King in Maryland.[28]
