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The Miracle on Ice US Hockey upset over the Soviet Union. Eli Manning and the New York Giants crushing Brady’s perfect season dreams in 2007. Leicester City winning the Premier League in 2016 at 5,000-to-1 underdogs. These are some of the biggest upsets in Sports history and now we can add ‘Joey Chestnut losing the St. Elmo Steakhouse Shrimp Cocktail Eating Contest’ to that list.
This year marked the 9th annual World Famous St. Elmo Shrimp Cocktail Eating Championship in Indianapolis. Joey Chestnut had won it 8 years in a row, each year the contest existed. St. Elmo Steakhouse is famous for their shrimp cocktail and Joey Chestnut is infamously the greatest competitive eater in history. They’re a perfect match.
Joey holds the world record for shrimp cocktails. It’s a record he set at this event in 2018 when he scarfed down 18 pounds and 9.6 ounces of shrimp cocktail in 8 minutes. In the 2021 World Famous St. Elmo Shrimp Cocktail Eating Championship in Indianapolis, Joey Chestnut at 17 pounds in just 8 minutes!!!
Not only was Joey Chestnut beaten at the 2022 St. Elmo Shrimp Cocktail Eating Championship… He didn’t even make the podium. Chestnut finished in 4th place this year:
Geoff Esper ate over 16 pounds of St. Elmo’s Shrimp Cocktail in just 8 minutes. He unseated the previously undefeated world champion of shrimp cocktail eating and earned a $3,000 prize for his herculean efforts. St. Elmo Steakhouse has some pretty hilarious images of the contestants eating through the pain posted to their Instagram page.
The new champ, Geoff Esper, has a YouTube channel full of competitive eating challenges. He holds the Guinness World Record for the most corn dogs eaten in 3 minutes:
In the ‘undercard’ of the Shrimp Eating Championship, they had a Michigan man facing off against a Purdue contestant. This was meant to preview the Big 10 Championship but the results were flipped with John from Purdue beating Andrew from Michigan.
It remains to be seen if this result from Joey Chestnut will foreshadow the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on the 4th of July. That is the most famous competitiving eating event on planet earth. Joey owns that event. But he was also a perfect 8-0 until this year’s shrimp-eating competition…
Chesnut hasn’t acknowledged his defeat yet on Twitter or Instagram.