Crowds gathered within the sweltering warmth Saturday to have fun the USA’ 250th birthday by watching famed aggressive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut defend his world hot dog eating championship in Coney Island, the place he downed 66 sizzling canine in simply 10 minutes. Miki Sudo defended her title as nicely within the ladies’s division.
Saturday marked the 18th time Chestnut, 42, received the so-called Mustard Belt in simply 21 appearances on the internationally televised Nathan’s Well-known Fourth of July sizzling canine consuming contest. He beat out 13 opponents who got here from across the nation and world, trekking from the Czech Republic, Australia and South Korea.
“It’s a dream, it’s electrical, there’s no place higher on Earth,” Chestnut stated breathlessly in an interview instantly after the showdown, donning a cumbersome, bejeweled necklace bearing the title of the sports activities betting firm “Polymarket” round his neck. In a video posted on Instagram earlier than the competitors, Chestnut referred to as aggressive sizzling canine consuming “essentially the most patriotic sport we’ve bought.”
Chestnut handily defeated the second-place winner, Patrick Bertoletti, 41, who ate 50 sizzling canine, however fell wanting his personal 2021 record of 76 wieners and buns — or roughly 7.6 sizzling canine per minute.
Defending champion within the ladies’s division, the 40-year-old Sudo of Tampa, Florida, received the brilliant pink Mustard Belt for the twelfth time, downing 38.75 canine. In 2024, she ate a file 51 hyperlinks.
After competing, Sudo joined the gang to look at her husband — who proposed to her in 2021 instantly after downing 50 boiled eggs in simply over 3 minutes to set a world file — compete within the males’s occasion.
Each champions stated that the heatwave that scorched New York on Saturday — bringing temperatures in Brooklyn to roughly 90 levels Fahrenheit (32 levels Celsius) in the course of the competitors — made that rather more troublesome. On prime of that, ESPN announcers stated the humidity modified the consistency of the buns.
“I simply stated I must depend on muscle reminiscence, and the gang actually carried me by means of to a different belt at the moment,” Sudo stated.
A big crowd braved the warmth to look at the occasion, carrying foam sizzling canine on their heads and standing exterior the unique Nathan’s Well-known restaurant that has been in Coney Island, Brooklyn, since 1972. The superfans who stood closest to the stage wore ponchos as safety in case a competitor threw up.
There was briefly some concern earlier this 12 months that Chestnut wouldn’t be capable to take part within the 2026 competitors after he was arrested for allegedly slapping a person in an Indiana bar. He was placed on probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery, however is allowed to journey exterior Indiana. Sizzling canine contest organizer Main League Consuming stated the prison case didn’t have an effect on Chestnut’s eligibility for the competitors.
Regardless of his continued reign, Chestnut instructed an ESPN interviewer after the sport that he was upset that he wasn’t in a position to prime his earlier file.
“Dang, I bought a lot room left,” stated Chestnut, who announcers known as the “Michelangelo of Mastication.”
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