Can one die from competitive eating?

Can one die from competitive eating?

Arnie "Chowhound" Chapman (Competitive Eater) gives expert video advice on: How do you train for a competitive eating contest?; What is 'picnic style' eating in competitive eating contests?; What training techniques work best for competitive eating? and more...

There's only two or three documented cases of somebody dying form Competitive Eating. I can tell you real quickly about the cases that I know about. There was an individual in Canada, during a wing-eating contest, and he was apparently really drunk. So one of the rules that a sanctioned organization does is, you don't really allow people to compete in contests who are intoxicated, and that should be really very clear to all participants. There was a guy in the Marines who apparently competed in a doughnut contest, and choked to death. I don't know all the circumstances around that. I think that was in the mid-70's. And then there's maybe one other case, and I'm not remembering what it is right now. But for the most part, if you look at the amount of events that have been done, and the amount of people that have gotten hurt from Competitive Eating, it is really, really small.