Randy Santel is a professional competitive eater, entrepreneur and a popular YouTuber.
He has 1.4 million subscribers on his YouTube channel by name, Randy Santel.
Introduction-
Randy Santel was born on 24 June 1986 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.
He grew up in St. Peters, Missouri.
Randy’s father, Joe Santel, worked at the Tool Service Center.
His mother, Karen Santel works at the St Charles Borromeo School.
Randy has a younger sister, Michelle Santel.
Education-
School-
Randy did his schooling from the Duchesne High School, in St. Charles, Missouri.
In September 2001, he earned an Eagle Scout from the Boy Scouts of America.
At school, Randy was active in playing football and volleyball.
He was an Honors Student and completed his schooling in 2004.
College-
In 2004, Randy joined Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri to study for a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management.
Here also he actively played football and for three years, he played as an offensive lineman for Missouri State Bears.
Randy graduated in 2008 with Cum Laude grade.
From 2008 to 26 October 2013, he worked in the construction industry.
Once again, in 2016, Randy joined Missouri State University but this time to study for a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics.
He mainly focused on Nutrition Education and Counseling and his minor was Biomedical Sciences and he graduated in 2019 with Magna Cum Laude grade.
Childhood-
Since his childhood, Randy has been able to eat excessively.
He used to weigh 205 pounds in his fifth grade, but he managed to lose 40 pounds by his sixth grade, thanks to his mother and the Weight Watchers website.
Then, Randy started playing soccer but he wasn’t happy with the running that it demanded.
So, after reaching high school, he switched to football.
Then, Randy decided to gain weight to become better at American football and eventually, he gained around a hundred pounds till the time he reached the senior season.
During that time, he used to work at Subway as a senior sandwich artist and here, he used to daily eat three double meat footlongs with vegetables.
Later, Randy switched to Burger King and here, he used to fill up an entire tray for eating.
Later, as he quit playing football and started working in the construction industry, he decided to lose weight.
Becoming fit-
As Randy was tall, he wanted to be ripped and look good.
In 2010, he learnt about the Men’s Health / Spartacus Body Transformation Challenge.
Randy competed in this challenge and within a couple of months, he lost 25 pounds and became ripped and won the Body Transformation Challenge.
As a prize for winning this challenge, he got a trip to Auckland, New Zealand and this sparked his love for travelling.
During that time, Randy also participated in a Halloween competition and donned the Gladiator costume and won this competition too.
Winning his first eating challenge-
Randy’s friend, Dan Graham invited him to team up with him to compete in a pizza challenge.
So, he participated in the The Pointersaurus Pizza Challenge in Pointer’s Pizza, St. Louis and won it after eating the 28″ Pointersaurus Pizza at the 48th minute (the time limit was one hour) and received a prize of $500.
During that time, Randy used to nickname himself as Atlas.
A month later, he participated in 18″ “Haus” Pizza Challenge in Jefferson City, Missouri and won $450.
Becoming a professional eater-
In 2010, Randy became a full-time eater and has been participating in various eating challenges since then.
In 2010, eating wasn’t a well known career and he wasn’t able to earn decent money but as competing in food challenges was his passion, he continued.
A few years later, even though Randy got few investors, he wasn’t able to earn well, so he used to live with his parents.
He, by eating at various restaurants, promotes them.
He maintains his weight by working out and maintaining a healthy diet outside the eating competitions.
Winning in more than a thousand competitions-
Randy won in more than a thousand eating competitions till date in countries all over the world like the United States (he won in all 50 states), Australia, United Kingdom, Netherlands, New Zealand, etc.
He has been able to win these many competitions all thanks to his formula of getting ready, training and strategizing before each competition.
Randy quickly takes lots of small bits of food and instead of chewing them well, he swallows them and pushes them with water.
In September 2022, he collaborated with Leah Shutkever for a 143oz Indian Mixed Grill Challenge.
An interesting fact- Randy Santel inspired Joel Hansen to become a competitive eater and now, Joel Hansen is one of the most popular competitive eaters of Canada.
Mannerisms-
Before eating in a competition, Randy flexes to show that he would win over the food.
He is a big fan of Sylvester Stallone and his movie, Over The Top and in this movie, Sylvester turns his hat before competing.
So, Randy initially prays and he too turns his hat before the food competition.
YouTube channel & other businesses-
Randy started his YouTube channel by name, Randy Santel on 24 September 2011.
And since then, he has been consistently publishing videos onto it.
Randy employs two full-time editors to edit his YouTube videos.
Thanks to his YouTube channel and other businesses, he has been able to make a good earning.
Apart from this channel, Randy owns a couple of websites, Foodchallenges.com and a website by his name.
As of February 2022, he has 1.5 million followers on his Facebook page.
On May 29, 2019, Randy published a book titled- ATLAS RISING.
Personal life-
Randy has been in a relationship with Katina DeJarnett since 18 July 2020.
She is also a competitive eater, bodybuilder and YouTuber.
Randy met her for the first time in person when he invited her to participate along with him in a pizza challenge in Nenana, Alaska and after five days, they started dating.
In 2021, both of them purchased a house in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and have been living in it since then.
Future plans-
Randy moved to live in Milwaukee so as to start a Dietetic Internship at Mount Mary University.
He is planning to retire from professional eating by 2023 or 2024 and then become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) and a public speaker.
Randy is also planning to write a book after becoming a dietitian.
So, how are you inspired by the success story of Randy Santel?
Share with me in the comment section below.
0 Comments