Competitive eating champion and Amazing Race alum Tim Janus dead at 49 after cancer battle

Tim Janus, a world champion competitive eater known as 'Eater X' who appeared on The Amazing Race, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and more, has died at age 49.

Janus passed on September 16 after a long battle with cancer, according to Major League Eating. 

Janus was ranked as high as number two in the world as a competitive eater, coming only second to Joey Chestnut, his teammate on The Amazing Race 30. 

Titles under his belt included the world tiramisu-eating champion, the world ramen eating champion, world nigiri sushi eating champion, and the world burping champion. 

Janus achieved these titles by consuming four pounds of tiramisu in six minutes, 10.5 pounds of ramen in eight minutes, and 141 pieces of nigiri in six minutes. 

Janus was also a returning competitor at Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, coming in second to Chestnut in 2010 and third to him in 2014. 

In 2017 they joined forces for The Amazing Race 30, where they came in eighth place. 

'I'd eat a roll of pennies if I thought I could set a world record, taste doesn't matter. I'd like to eat everything in the world at least once. I'd eat alien if we could find it. If we could raise dinosaurs, I'd sign up to eat those,' he told Food Republic in 2015. 

Janus, who would take the stage with a painted face, started eating competitively in 2004 and was inducted into the Major League Eating Hall of Fame at one point.

'I tell people that I learned a lot about life by eating hot dogs, and I mean it,' he said while being inducted. 'If you care about something and work hard at it, it makes you better.'

Janus' passion for competing extended to the small screen, where he appeared on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Cash Cab, and of course The Amazing Race. 

He excelled on television as well and made Cash Cab history as their largest winner (taking home $1600). 

During a 2009 appearance on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, he brought home $100,000.  

In 2023, Janus started working for the United States Foreign Service, yet his health prevented him from serving abroad, according to Major League Eating. 

The world-champion competitive eater harbored concerns about how his passion for food would impact his health.

'Deep down I've wondered how long-term stupid competing is for my health. I can't ignore that feeling anymore,' he tweeted in 2016. 

'For me it's more about how we're destroying our bodies. Each of us only gets one,' he also said. 

Janus's former roommate and fellow competitive eater, Crazy Legs Conti, paid tribute to a man who 'lived life on his own terms.' 

'Tim followed his own passions and dreams without regard for the pressures or expectations of society,' he told Major League Eating. 'He was unique, brilliant and beloved by his friends. He lived his life on his own terms.”