"Hungry" Charles Hardy

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"Hungry" Charles Hardy is a competitive eater from Brooklyn, NY. Hardy is a long-standing member of the International Federation of Competitive Eating and retired from the sport in 2005 to become the IFOCE's commissioner. During the latter half of 2004 Hungry Charles displayed a quiet dominance in eating, placing second and third in major events throughout the nation. Hardy has secured victory for six consecutive years in the Civil Service qualifier for the hot dog circuit and he maintains records in sushi, shrimp and cabbage.

Hardy is a legend on the IFOCE circuit and known to fellow eaters as "The Godfather". He is a former Nathan's American Hot Dog Eating Champion (Personal best is 23.5 Nathan's hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes). Hardy won the 2000 Matzo Ball Eating Contest by consuming 15.5 matzo balls in 5 minutes and 25 seconds. He has competed in Japan twice, eating no less than 15 feet of sushi in one sitting. After disappointing performances in Coney Island, skeptics murmured that the elasticity was gone from the stomach of the one-time American Hot Dog Eating Champion. However, Hardy put an abrupt end to whispers with his victory at the Hibernation Cup in Alaska, which included recorded-breaking performances in shrimp (4.5 pounds in 12 minutes) and boiled cabbage (an astounding six and a half pounds in nine minutes).

Hardy supplanted Ed Krachie in the late 1990s as America's most recognized competitive eater, and is a former member of the Corrections Emergency Response Team (CERT) at Rikers Island.