Former AFL great Sam Newman has launched an extraordinary attack on a transgender woman who took out a hot dog eating competition in the United States after transitioning.
The outspoken Newman took the an opportunity to mock the trans-champion after it was raised in his podcast, You Cannot Be Serious.
Michelle Lesco ate 30 hotdogs to win the women’s division and $10,000 prize at the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest last weekend in the United States.
Michelle Lesco wins the women’s competition by consuming 30.75 Nathan’s hot dogs at the 2021 Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island on July 4, 2021 in New York City
Former footy scribe Mike Sheahen, ex-St Kilda coach Grant Thomas(centre) and Sam Newman (right) appeared in a 2019 video where Newman joked he was transitioning
Newman has had a tough year after losing his wife Amanda earlier this year
This year, 17 men and 13 women competed in the event, with world No. 9-ranked eater Lesco taking out the women’s prize.
Lesco’s greatest threat Miki Sudo — who devoured 48 hotdogs in 2020 to break the world record and win her seventh straight title — sat this year out because she’s due to give birth at the end of the month.
Newman was told Lesco had taken out the prize after failing to qualify for the event two years earlier as a man.
While under lockdown in Covid-plagued Arizona, Lesco went into training after transitioning.
‘You’d think she’d be good at eating hotdogs in that case wouldn’t you,’ Newman responded.
‘You’d think that would be her forte. Sticking a hotdog in your gob – 30 of them.’
‘That’s just wrong,’ co-host Rod Law told Newman.
But the 75-year old was on a roll.
‘She was Mexican – they called her one-eater. She had one tooth,’ Newman chuckled.
‘So she ate 30, or he. What’s her pronoun?’ Newman asked. ‘They, thy, thee, thus, them, they, thou?’
Michelle Lesco celebrates after winning the Women’s Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest
Michelle Lesco transitioned while under lockdown and become a hotdog eating machine
Newman went onto describe men who dressed in drag as being part of a ‘cult’.
It is not the first time Newman has sparked controversy with his swipes at the transgender community.
In 2019, former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas was forced to apologise after appearing in a video with Newman, who was dressed in drag.
The video, which was posted and then removed from Twitter, saw Newman declare he was ‘transitioning’ into a woman.
In it, Newman could be seen speaking to camera with smeared make-up, a white hat, and a scarf.
‘I think I’ve run my race as an older male, and I’m thinking of transitioning,’ he said.
‘I think I could feel comforted by being an older female, and it’ll work well because my partner is thinking of turning herself into a boy … It doesn’t change we’re still man and woman.
‘I’m going to clean up on world titles as a woman, an older woman … And I’m serious … If anyone thinks I’m not, I’ll sue.’
Newman was involved in a boating accident this week. He said he put his boat halfway into a space when he thought to reverse the vessel. ‘What I did was push it forward and it sped into the wharf and into someone else’s boat,’ he said
LGBT advocate and daughter of former Hawthorn champion Russell Greene described Newman as ‘a bully’ at the time.
‘I thought after our conversation last year that you may have left with an ounce of respect towards the trans community and human beings in general,’ Greene stated on Twitter.
Newman has had a tough couple of years after being dumped from The Footy Show and losing his longtime partner earlier this year.
Just this week, Newman revealed he was involved in a boating accident.
The nautical mishap occurred when he tried to reverse his boat Sea Sea Rider using a remote control, which resulted in the vessel lurching forward and colliding with another craft and a wharf.
‘I’m happy to say I’m simple and I was incompetent,’ Newman said.
Daily Mail Australia has asked Rainbow Rights Watch for comment.