Crazy Legs Conti

Crazy Legs Conti at a 2007 french fry eating competition.

Crazy Legs Conti is an American competitive eater. He is currently ranked seventeenth in the world by the International Federation of Competitive Eating.[1]

Early life and career

Conti was raised in Belmont, MA[2] and later attended Johns Hopkins University. While at Johns Hopkins, he was a three sport athlete. He is known for his distinctive dreadlocks.

In addition to competitive eating, he has had a variety of jobs including purchasing agent for a steakhouse, screenwriter, bouncer, model, and window washer.[3] Conti has appeared as a commentator for "MLE Chowdown" on Spike TV. He also once appeared on the Discovery channel's "Cash Cab" program with Tim Janus who won $1600 total by answering the bonus question.

Competitive eating

Conti counts Eric Booker as an early inspiration to begin competitive eating. He won his first competition in New Orleans during Super Bowl weekend 2002 by eating over 400 oysters.[4] He has held several world records, including the green bean and sweet corn categories.[5]

Conti trains by eating six hot dogs at a time as fast as possible and has studied video of Takeru Kobayashi in order to improve his technique. He also runs and goes to the gym three times a week to avoid gaining excess weight. This led him to compete in several marathons.[3]

He claims that his motivation in competing is the joy of winning, rather than prize money.[6] In addition to his successes, he is known to be magnanimous in defeat.[7]

He is the subject of the 2004 competitive eating documentary Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating.

References

  1. ↑ "Eater Profiles". ifoce.com. International Federation of Competitive Eating. Retrieved 27 January 2011.
  2. ↑ Mark Shanahan; Carol Beggy (22 February 2005). "Eat Up". Boston Globe. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "An Elite Eater". John Hopkins Magazine. September 2005. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  4. ↑ Laura Raposa; Gayle Fee (9 December 2002). "Crazy Legs ready to put the bite on chowing record". The Boston Herald. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  5. ↑ "Records". ifoce.com. International Federation of Competitive Eating. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  6. ↑ Wolf, Buck (10 September 2009). "Crazy Legs' Crowned Cannoli King". AOL News. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  7. ↑ Groves, Steve (2 October 2006). "Crazy Legs has no need to eat his words when it comes to losing". Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales). Retrieved 23 February 2010.

External links