Who is Sonya Thomas and where is the competitive eater now?
FOR TWO decades, Sonya Thomas has been impressing crowds across the country with her competitive eating skills.
Nicknamed The Black Widow, she has grown a large fan base due to her impressive talent, causing many to wonder what she's up to now.
Who is Sonya Thomas?
Sonya Thomas is a South Korean-born American competitive eater from Alexandria, Virginia who was born on July 26, 1967.
Growing up, Thomas had a "good appetite" and an active metabolism, but it wasn't until she saw Takeru Kobayashi eat 50 hot dogs in 2002 that she knew she was capable of competitive eating.
The following year, she started competing and quickly rose through the ranks, earning IFOCE Rookie of the Year honors along the way.
As a result, she earned the nickname, The Black Widow, which is meant to represent her desire to win.
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"Like the female black widow spider, it is my desire to eliminate the males," she said on her website.
"In competitive eating I want to eat more or faster than the men. I want to make boys out of them."
Throughout the course of her career, she has done just that, defeating the likes of Eater X, Pat Bertoletti, and Joey Chestnut, among others.
How many world records does Sonya Thomas have?
Thanks to Thomas' skills, she has been able to break several records.
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To date, she has broken 39, according to her website.
Some of those records include:
- The most amount of acme oysters: 47 dozen (564) in 8 minutes
- The most amount of oysters: 37 dozen + 1 (445) Oysters in 5 minutes
- The most amount of Buffalo Wing Festival chicken wings: 6.43 lbs (of meat eaten off the bone) in 12 minutes
- The most amount of Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs and buns by a woman: 45 in 10 minutes
- The most amount of crawfish: 6.5 lbs in 10 minutes
While some might think that competitive eating requires a lot of training, Thomas revealed that she doesn't do much of any.
"For the first 2 years, if I was totally unfamiliar with the kind of food I was to be eating, I would sometimes practice my speed and technique for 1 or 2 minutes, but, since 2005 I have not trained at all," she said.
Where is competitive eater Sonya Thomas now?
In the beginning, Thomas would limit herself to no more than one or two competitive eating events a month, however, as the years have gone on, her appearances have become less frequent.
While Thomas still competes from time to time, she is often "too busy" nowadays doing other things.
"I (used to) participate in no more than one or two competitive eating events a month. Now I rarely compete. I'm just too busy these days," she said.
Now much is known about her life outside of competitive eating, but according to Mashed, her day job is working as a manager at a Maryland-based Burger King.