College sports star chokes to death in hot dog-eating contest

A student at Tufts University died last weekend after competing in a hot dog-eating contest.

Reports say 20-year-old Madie Nicpon, a lacrosse player from Suffern, New York, began choking Saturday during an off-campus charity event to raise funds for breast cancer awareness.

Emergency officials administered “extensive lifesaving procedures” but were unable to save her, Tufts said in a statement, according to HuffPost.

She was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Somerville, Massachusetts, outside Boston, where she was pronounced dead the next day, WCVB News 5 reported.

Nicpon was a junior majoring in biopsychology, and she was planning for a career in medicine, reports said.

Friends and teammates described her as “a social butterfly.”

About 3,000 people attended a candlelight vigil Sunday to honor her memory.

A GoFundMe page has so far raised more than $159,000 to help the family cover funeral and medical expenses.

The Tufts lacrosse team posted a tribute to its teammate Wednesday on Instagram.

“We are heartbroken over the loss of Madie Nicpon ‘23 — a member of Tufts Lacrosse and an incredible person that reached every corner of the Tufts University Community,” the post reads. “Madie will be remembered as a bright light, a social butterfly, an amazing teammate, a kind and generous person, a wonderful sister and daughter and a Jumbo that we can all aspire to emulate. She will be missed every day.”