SHE'S THE CHAMP Hungry for competition

At 99 pounds, Sonya Thomas carries more than her own weight in the contests.
By PETER CARLSON
WASHINGTON POST
THE WORLD'S GREATEST EATERS PArade into Philadelphia's Wachovia Center, and the crowd goes wild. Here comes Augustine Chung, who once ate two pounds of caviar in six minutes. He's in a white fur coat and is accompanied by a stripper wearing only a bikini bottom and body paint.
And here's Paul "Totally Apauling" Lawrence, riding a float that looks like a giant cow tongue, a not-so-subtle reference to his most famous feat -- eating two pounds of cow tongue in 20 minutes.
And here's Don "Moses" Lerman, who holds the world record for butter eating -- seven quarter-pound sticks in five minutes -- wearing biblical robes and holding the Ten Commandments carved in Styrofoam.
"This is the biggest event in the history of competitive eating!" the emcee screams, and the crowd of 20,000 -- many of whom tailgated in the parking lot all night -- roars. It's 7:20 a.m. on Jan. 30, and it sounds like the rest of the world is four beers behind.
This is Wing Bowl XII, the world's most exuberant chicken-wing eating contest, and the 25 distinguished eaters are onstage. All but one are men, several well over 400 pounds, who look like NFL offensive linemen who retired in a doughnut factory.
The 25th contestant is competitive eating's 2003 rookie of the year, Sonya Thomas, 36, 99 pounds, wearing a black boa over her waiflike frame.
It's 8 o'clock -- showtime! -- and here comes a float topped with two blond dominatrixes. Somebody sings a heartfelt "God Bless America," and then, as confetti falls, one dominatrix climbs a ladder and ceremoniously drops an egg to the floor -- and the contest begins.
Tiny Thomas rips into her wings, cheeks bulging like Dizzy Gillespie in mid-solo.
"Sonya has taken an early lead!" the emcee bellows.
Getting started
Thomas burst upon the world of competitive eating like a thunderbolt.
On television, she'd seen the annual Fourth of July hot-dog-eating contest at Nathan's on Coney Island, and it ignited a hunger inside her -- for fame, for fortune, for food. She wanted to become a champion.
"I have to be always number one -- the best," says Thomas, of Alexandria, Va., in suburban Washington.
With a Web search, she learned that the final qualifying round for the July 4, 2003, hot dog contest would take place at Nathan's at the Molly Pitcher rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. She took a vacation day from her job as assistant manager at Burger King at Andrews Air Force Base, hopped into her red Grand Am and roared up the turnpike.
She hustled in just as the contest started. And she won it going away, beating a dozen competitors by gulping 18 dogs in 12 minutes.
On July 4, Thomas traveled to Coney Island to compete against the world's best eaters, including Takeru Kobayashi, the skinny Japanese superman who holds the world record: 501/2 hot dogs in 12 minutes. She finished fifth with 25 dogs -- but it was a new women's record.
Richard Shea, president of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, was stunned. He wondered: Who is this woman?
The daughter of a poor carpenter in South Korea, Thomas earned a college degree in hotel management, then worked in a hotel in Japan for a couple of years. In 1997, at 30, she immigrated to the United States. She began working for a company that runs Burger Kings on military bases. At Andrews, she amazed co-workers by routinely devouring a dinner of 20 chicken nuggets, a Chicken Whopper and three king-size fries, washed down with huge Diet Cokes.
She has always preferred one gargantuan daily feast to three modest meals. "I eat a lot," she says. "I have a big stomach capacity."
She also wants to be the best at something -- and isn't that what America is all about?
"In the U.S.," she says, "if you have the desire, you can do anything!"
Victories
Since July, she has chomped through competitive eating contests like a locust:
UIn August, she won the Hardee's World Thickburger Eating Contest, gulping down seven 12-ounce burgers in 10 minutes.
UIn September, she won a taco contest: 431/2 in 11 minutes.
UIn October, she won the World Barbecue Eating Contest: 23 sandwiches in 12 minutes.
UIn November, she won the Thanksgiving Meal Invitational: 73/4 pounds of turducken dinner (a turkey, duck and chicken concoction) in 12 minutes, beating 415-pound reigning champ Ed "Cookie" Jarvis by a quarter pound.
UIn December, she won the fruitcake-eating championship: 4 pounds and 141/2 ounces in 10 minutes.
But she doesn't always win. A couple of weeks ago, in a Manhattan Hooters, she faced Jarvis in a runoff wings match to determine the official 2003 American eating champ. She lost, 134 to 130.
"I want to cry," she said afterward. "I don't like to lose. I have to be the best."
She stays in shape, running on a treadmill for two hours, then scarfing her midday meal.
Last fall, she quit her Burger King job to devote time to her gustatory career. Briefly married but now living alone, she figures her savings -- plus the several thousand dollars she has won -- will keep her going for a year or so. That's why this Wing Bowl is so important. The winner gets a $17,000 Suzuki Verona -- easily the best prize on the eating circuit, where purses tend to run about $1,000 per match.
"This is the big one," she says.
After several rounds, Jarvis and Thomas share the lead with 153 wings each.
"Overtime!" the emcee shouts. "We're going two more minutes!"
Jarvis and Thomas start chomping.
The buzzer sounds. Fans hold their breath. Whoever thought eating wings could be this exciting?
"We have a winner!" the emcee yells.
It's Thomas, 167-165!
"Unbelievable!" the emcee yells.