Famed aggressive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut reclaimed his title Friday on the Nathan’s Well-known Fourth of July hot-dog consuming contest after after skipping final yr’s gastronomic battle in New York for the coveted Mustard Belt.
Chestnut, 41, consumed 70 1/2 sizzling canines and buns in 10 minutes, falling wanting his file of 76 wieners and buns set on July 4, 2021. It marked the seventeenth win in 20 appearances for the Westfield, Indiana, eater on the internationally televised competitors, which he missed in 2024 over a contract dispute.
Defending champion within the girls’s division, Miki Sudo of Tampa, Florida, gained her eleventh title, downing 33 canines, besting a dozen rivals. Final yr, she ate a file 51 hyperlinks.
A big crowd, many carrying foam sizzling canine hats, braved excessive temperatures to witness the annual eat-a-thon, held exterior the unique Nathan’s Well-known restaurant in Coney Island, Brooklyn, since 1972. Many present as much as see Chestnut’s much-awaited return to an occasion he has referred to as “a cherished custom, a celebration of American tradition, and an enormous a part of my life.”
Chestnut bested 14 fellow rivals from throughout the U.S. and internationally, together with Australia, the Czech Republic, Ontario, England and Brazil.
Final yr, Main League Consuming occasion organizer George Shea mentioned Chestnut wouldn’t be taking part within the contest because of a contract dispute. Chestnut had struck a take care of a competing model, the plant-based meat firm Unattainable Meals.
Chestnut instructed The Related Press final month that he had by no means appeared in any commercials for the corporate’s vegan sizzling canines and that Nathan’s is the one sizzling canine firm he has labored with. However Chestnut acknowledged he “ought to have made that extra clear with Nathan’s.”
Final yr, Chestnut ate 57 canines — in solely 5 minutes — in an exhibition with troopers, at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. He mentioned that occasion was “wonderful” and he was happy to nonetheless have an opportunity to eat sizzling canines — a number of them — on July Fourth.
“I am comfortable I did that, however I am actually comfortable to be again at Coney Island,” he mentioned.
Final yr in New York, Patrick Bertoletti of Chicago wolfed up a 58 to earn the boys’s title.
