On our nation’s birthday this 12 months, Mary Bowers plans to showcase her personal uncommon American story — and that of different children — in a really American manner: with scorching canines.
Bowers, which ranks No. 49 among competitive eatersand No. 11 amongst females, was born in South Korea and adopted in 1982 at 5 months previous by Billy and Cindy Bowers of Greeley.
She acquired into the game in 2011 after attending a scorching canine consuming contest in Orange County, California, the place she solely supposed to be a spectator. However when somebody requested her if she wished to take the final place within the competitors, she mentioned: “Why not? … I believed I hadn’t eaten but, so I believed, ‘Who cares? I get a free dinner from this.”
Bowers managed to eat seven and a half scorching canines in 12 minutes, and because the occasion occurred to be a qualifier for the ultimate spherical of Nathan’s Worldwide Scorching Canine Consuming Contest, she acquired a name from Main League Consuming, the skilled competitors of consuming . competitions, to be the first-ever girls’s wild card entrant on the 2012 Championship at Coney Island.
She positioned tenth by consuming 8.5 scorching canines in 10 minutes, then ate 10 a 12 months later for a seventh place end within the girls’s class. Since then, Bowers has competed in tons of of contests, racking up 300 gyoza, 200 hen wings, 150 scorching canines and 100 tacos in that point. Her most notable contest in Colorado was the Unlawful Pete’s World Burrito Consuming Contest at Mile Excessive Stadium’s Empower Area, the place she positioned ninth total with three burritos.
In 2020, nevertheless, Bowers took on a distinct type of problem. She went again to Korea to search out her organic dad and mom. As an alternative, she came upon by means of her adoption data that she had 5 completely different birthdays and 4 names. Bowers finally realized that she had been kidnapped and trafficked as a child, and that the adoptive dwelling she got here from is currently under investigation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea for a variety of alleged humanitarian crimes.
“What I believed could be a traditional seek for a start has changed into a world search,” she mentioned. “It is irritating as a result of… I actually have a planner with completely different coloured Publish-its to handle the completely different features of my authorized entity. I really feel like I do know myself. I’m an individual. I do know who I’m, however the exterior world would not know that in the intervening time.”
Bowers beforehand entered the Nathan’s scorching canine consuming contest as a Colorado native, however this time she’d determined to characterize South Korea — the primary individual to take action — as a approach to elevate some consciousness for the human rights marketing campaign in her native nation.
The marketing campaign was began by the Australia-United States Korean Rights Grouprepresenting 16 Koreans adopted by households in the US and Australia. Their petition calls on the US Congress to analyze allegations of unlawful and fraudulent adoptions from South Korea.
“Practically 400 Korean adoptees from world wide have filed circumstances and they’re discovering considerably extra individuals affected,” Bowers mentioned. “So I hope that on this Nathan’s run I can convey consciousness to the difficulty after which additionally get the American public to root for us and lend their help.”
Bowers’ objective is to eat 16 scorching canines — practically double her common — to characterize every of the adoptees’ circumstances, together with her personal (the competition will happen from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on July 4 and can air on ESPN ). Prior to now, she has persistently eaten about eight scorching canines and buns, placing her in the midst of the plate. At her final competitors in 2019, she got here in at quantity 12 out of 15 girls.
The present scorching canine consuming report is 76 in ten minutes, held by Joey Chestnut for the boys’s division and 48.5 by Miki Sudo for the ladies’s in the identical time.
“World rankings are often based mostly on the variety of competitions you enter every year, in addition to your efficiency in Nathan’s league,” Bowers mentioned. “It is like our Tremendous Bowl.”
Bowers’ typical technique is to pre-fill her abdomen with loads of liquid to stretch it out, and she or he makes use of a glass of water to dip her buns in earlier than consuming them through the match. She mentioned scorching canines are one of many tougher aggressive bites and require lots of approach by way of timing and rhythm.
Bowers’ favourite factor to eat competitively is ice cream sandwiches with a private better of 14 ice cream sandwiches in six minutes. “It’s kind of like a gladiatorial sport. When you will have an harm and also you make ice cream, the whole lot goes numb, and the identical factor occurs once you eat giant quantities of ice cream,” she defined. “About perhaps 30 seconds into the sport you do not really feel the within of your mouth and do not understand how aggressive you have been within the recreation till the whole lot thaws and bleeds on the finish.”
Essentially the most she’s ever eaten in a brief period of time is when she devoured 5 kilos of boysenberry pie in eight minutes on the 2015 Knott’s Boysenberry Competition World Pie Consuming Championship.
“To offer you an thought, the common individual’s abdomen incorporates about two and a half to 3 kilos of meals,” Bowers mentioned.
Aggressive consuming is not her full-time gig. Bowers, who has a level in structure, beforehand labored as an structure challenge supervisor earlier than leaving for South Korea in 2020. She can also be a frequent visitor on TV and radio exhibits, together with ‘America’s Acquired Expertise’, which she carried out on in 2021. Bowers ate her manner by means of a pie she jumped out of, however could not get previous the primary spherical.
“It was difficult to movie through the pandemic as a result of there was no viewers,” Bowers mentioned. “I made the cake and designed the costume myself. I want I had the possibility to do it once more underneath completely different circumstances.”
Bowers is aware of this profession will not final ceaselessly, however she’s nonetheless hungry for extra.
“For the individuals who have been at it for a very long time, similar to every other sport, you begin listening to tales about jaw arthritis and overloading the physique as a complete,” Bowers mentioned. “I really feel like I am nonetheless in fairly good condition, however the true drawback is the gifted newcomers watching my previous tape. So sooner or later I might wish to cease whereas I am nonetheless forward. I do not need to simply wait till my coronary heart and soul cling to the underside of the cabinets.”
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