Yasir Salem

Salem resides in New York City and his two cats. His wife, Gweneviere Mann, a non-smoker, passed away on July 22 2018 from lung cancer. She was 47.

He has stated his intent to run one marathon each month in 2017, and is currently training for the 2018 Race Across the West and the 2019 Race Across America ultra-endurance bicycle races, which are 900 and 3,000 miles, respectively.

Salem competed in Pennsylvania’s Donut Derby bicycle race in 2015, 2016 and 2017, achieving his best "donut style" bicycle race by eating 61 donuts over 36 miles for a donut-adjusted time of -31 minutes.

Salem’s first Major League Eating win was at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest Qualifier in Concord, North Carolina in 2012. His first Major League Eating title came in September 2013, when he ate 31.75 cannoli at Little Italy’s Feast of San Gennaro Cannoli Eating Championship. Salem’s first Tour de Donut championship was the Tour de Donut Ohio in 2014.

He competed in his first New York City Triathlon in 2012, having only learned to swim that same year. He then competed in his first Ironman in 2013, and would complete four total by 2015.

Salem ran and completed his first marathon in the 2010 New York City Marathon. By June 2017, he had completed 20.

Salem’s entry into the competitive eating scene started as something of a joke. "I was watching the Nathan’s contest in 2008, and I thought, ‘Wow, all I have to do is eat a bunch of hot dogs and I can be on ESPN?’" he told Mental Floss. He trains by eating a 4 to 6 pounds salad every day for lunch followed by a gallon of water. He credits enlisting the help of a hypnotherapist as a key turning point in his success as a competitive eater.