Crazy Legs Conti

Crazy Legs Conti (formerly known as John Conti or Jason Conti, prior to a legal name change[1]) is an American competitive eater. In 2011, he was ranked 21st in the world by the International Federation of Competitive Eating.[2]

Crazy Legs Conti
Crazy Legs Conti at a 2007 french fry eating competition
Personal information
Birth nameJohn Conti
Nickname(s)Crazy Legs
NationalityAmerican
Born1974 (age 48–49)
Belmont, Massachusetts
Alma materJohns Hopkins University
Sport
SportCompetitive eating

Early life and education

Conti was raised in Belmont, Massachusetts.[3] He attended Johns Hopkins University.[4] He was a three-sport athlete for the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, playing basketball, football ("third string punter"), and on the track team he competed in high jump ("but I never quite got high enough to qualify").[5]

Other careers

In addition to competitive eating, he has had a variety of jobs including purchasing agent for a steakhouse restaurant, screenwriter, bouncer, nude model, and window washer.[4] Conti has appeared as a commentator for MLE Chowdown on Spike TV. He appeared once 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.[6] He has held several world records, including the green bean and buffet food categories.[7]

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.[4]

He claims that his motivation in competing is the joy of winning, rather than prize money.[8] In addition to his successes, he is known to be magnanimous in defeat.[9]

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

Other endeavors

Conti and his fellow Johns Hopkins alumnus Chris Russell produced a short film, "Dearly Beloved", which won the Gold Award for Best Short Film Comedy-Adaptation at the Houston International Film Festival in 1997.[10][11]

Conti has been involved in several other productions as assorted crew members; films include Mambo Café (2000) and The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (1999).[12]

Conti appeared as an uncredited cameo in The Sopranos, in the episode "The Ride".

Conti's short film 'SOULFINGER vs GOLDFINGER screened at The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival in 2017.[13]

See also

References
  1. "Is Competitive Eating a Sport?". The Atlantic. 2014-06-09.
  2. "Eater Profiles". ifoce.com. International Federation of Competitive Eating. Retrieved 27 January 2011.
  3. Shanahan, Mark; Beggy, Carol (22 February 2005). "Eat Up". Boston Globe. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  4. MB (September 2005). "An Elite Eater". Johns Hopkins Magazine. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  5. Conti, John "Crazy Legs" (2004). "Crazy Legs Conti". NewYorkCool.com (Interview). Interviewed by Jessica Coogan.
  6. Laura Raposa; Gayle Fee (9 December 2002). "Crazy Legs ready to put the bite on chowing record". The Boston Herald. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  7. "Records". ifoce.com. International Federation of Competitive Eating. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  8. Wolf, Buck (10 September 2009). "Crazy Legs' Crowned Cannoli King". AOL News. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  9. 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.
  10. Snyder, Julia, ed. (September 1997). "Alumni Notes". Johns Hopkins Magazine. Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  11. "REMI Winners: 1997". worldfest.org. Archived from the original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  12. Jason Conti at IMDb
  13. Brooklyn, The Art of (2017-05-04). "Announcing the Official Selections of the 2017 Art of Brooklyn Film Festival". Medium. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
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